Colleges and universities will compete in October to see who can reduce, reuse, and recycle the most material at a home football game. Fans and players alike will participate in the Game Day Challenge, created by the EPA. The goal is to increase participation in the football community for waste reduction programs.
This one-day program will collect common materials for recycling such as paper, beverage containers, and cardboard as well as food to be composted or donated. Institutions will monitor and calculate waste and recycling data, which determines which school is the greenest in one of five categories:
- Least amount of waste generated per attendee
- Largest overall recycling rate (trash, recycling, and composting data)
- Greatest greenhouse gas reduction
- Highest recycling rate
- Largest organic reduction rate (composting and food donation)
The competition is sponsored by EPA’s WasteWise program, a voluntary program through which “organizations eliminate costly municipal solid waste and select industrial wastes, benefiting their bottom line and the environment.”
Registration for the 2010 Game Day Challenge will be open until September 30, 2010. The winning colleges will be announced in November. So far, over 20 schools are participating, including: Notre Dame, Harvard, Louisiana State, Ohio, Penn State, Michigan, Texas, and Virginia Tech.
For more information on the Game Day Challenge: http://epa.gov/gameday/
For more information on WasteWise program: http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/partnerships/wastewise/index.htm