Green Bay As the last group of fans walked out of Lambeau Field on a Sunday afternoon, the iconic seating bowl looked more like a landfill than the home of the Green Bay Packers.
It was quite a collection the 70,000 or more football fans left behind. Paper cups, plastic beer bottles, straws, plastic drink tops, leftover food, some glass, peanuts, wrappers, game programs, pizza boxes, assorted paper, nacho baskets, even cell phones were scattered about on the concrete floor of each row from top to bottom. [img_r]http://media.journalinteractive.com/images/mjs-recycle_-nws_-sears_-5-recycle.jpg[/img_r]
A few hours after the game, as many as 70 volunteers, wearing latex gloves and carrying plastic bags, worked their way around the seating bowl, picking up and bagging plastic bottles and paper that can be recycled.
Each bag was filled three-quarters of the way until another volunteer took the bag and carried it into the stadium concourses where it was loaded on a truck to be taken away to a transfer station and, eventually, a Waste Management recycling center in Germantown.
After that, another crew arrived to pick up the waste. On most game days, the work is not done until 9 p.m.
The effort to recycle and employ other so-called green initiatives throughout Lambeau Field - as well as Miller Park in Milwaukee, Camp Randall Stadium in Madison and, to a lesser extent, the Bradley Center in Milwaukee - represents not only a good business practice for sports teams. Increasingly, it is seen as the right thing to do.
"Businesses want brand loyalty and sports teams are unique in that regard," said Allen Hershkowitz, director of the green sports initiative for the Natural Resources Defense Council, a group that advises the major sports leagues and teams on sound and proper environmental practices. "They want people to wear their clothes. But recycling is where a good environmental program intersects most visibly with fans."
It is a daunting task to clean up, separate and recycle after tens of thousands of fans have left the building. For years, sports fans have largely been conditioned to leave their waste and garbage at their feet.
But sports teams and companies such as Waste Management have seen the benefit of recycling and green programs. State law requires that major buildings such as stadiums and arenas have recycling programs in place.
"The question is, what can we afford not to recycle?" asked Waste Management spokeswoman Lynn Morgan. "Recycling saves energy, cuts greenhouse gas emissions and harvests precious resources, benefits that become more valuable every day."
Morgan added that Waste Management handles about 8 million tons a year of recyclables and foresees recycling triple that amount by 2020. [img_r]http://media.jsonline.com/images/199*127/mjs-recycle-05-nws-wood-recycle.jpg[/img_r]
At Lambeau, nearly 6.7 tons of recyclables were collected per game on average in 2007. Last season, that went up to 6.9 tons per game on average. In addition to the volunteers picking up recyclables in the seating bowl, there are containers on the concourses for recycling.
While the amount of recyclables has gone up, the amount of solid waste headed to landfills has dropped. Solid waste collected went from 10 tons per game in 2007 to 8.5 tons per game in 2008.
According to Ted Eisenreich, the Packers' director of facility operations, of all the recyclables, 40% are plastic, 45% are paper-type products and 15% are glass.
"I'm happy with where we're at," Eisenreich said.
The Packers also have increasingly been using more environmentally friendly food ware, such as plates and napkins. And the franchise is part of Wisconsin Public Service's NatureWise renewable energy program to power the stadium on game days. Under that program, the Packers purchase power that includes electricity produced from wind and biogas sources.
Most leagues, including the National Football League, Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association, have policies that encourage and promote recycling efforts.
"In some places, it's cheaper to landfill than to recycle," Hershkowitz said. "The marketplace is still biased against environmentally friendly practices. But there is a strong sentiment these days to do the right thing. Sports knows that, but they are businesses, too."
The Brewers, team concessionaire Sportservice and Performance Clean cooperate in separating plastics and aluminum from waste at Miller Park. Recycled items are put in clear bags and placed in a recycling container for pickup by Waste Management, the area's major solid-waste and recycling hauler.
As with the Packers, the Brewers also have recycling containers in various parking lots. According to team officials, the Brewers are considering expanding that into more lots next season.
Tom Olson, the head of Sportservice at Miller Park, said the company also was moving toward more environmentally friendly paper products. But he acknowledged that the training of volunteers who work in concession stands for fund-raising purposes could be improved so that the recycling of cardboard, plastic and recyclable paper is done properly.
"We're working with Miller Park because they could do better," said Cynthia Moore, the Department of Natural Resources' state recycling program coordinator.
Rick Schlesinger, executive vice president for business operations, said the Brewers and Johnson Controls, one of its major sponsors, implemented a building automation system that better controls lighting, heating and cooling at the ballpark.
At the Bradley Center, Steve Costello, president and CEO, said the arena had begun to make major moves toward recycling and energy savings. He said the Bradley Center had replaced all fluorescent lighting fixtures.
"We spent $150,000 on our lighting system, but that will save us $50,000 a year in electrical consumption.," he said.
In addition, all paper material has to be green certified, meaning there has to be recycled content.
In Madison, students with an environmental bent are leading the charge to collect recyclables at Camp Randall, the home of the Wisconsin Badgers. The main group is ReThink Wisconsin, a coalition formed to encourage sustainable waste practices on campus.
For Maggie Galloway, a fifth-year senior who coordinates recycling for ReThink, it's a matter of changing the mindsets of fans. "Right now, it's integral to sports activities: You throw whatever you have on the ground. Fans don't think about that when they leave," she said.
Fortunately, more and more recyclables are ending up in Betty Trimper's place of business. Trimper is the plant manager for Waste Management's recycling center in Germantown. The plant processes 70 tons of recyclables an hour, and workers never run short of running machines that separate the plastic from the paper.
"We take it all," Trimper said.