The stadium had set a goal for itself to put on a 鈥淶ero Waste鈥� Super Bowl 鈥� meaning that 90% of all waste generated on Super Bowl Sunday stays out of landfills. The remaining 10% will be sent to a waste-to-energy incineration plant where it will be burned to create electricity.
Bradley Vogel, the stadium鈥檚 sustainability coordinator, stood over a small mountain of trash bags filled with empty beer cups and cheese-stained nacho trays, and placed a sign in the middle designating it ready for sorting. The average Vikings game generates about 40 tons of waste, he said, but the Super Bowl brings in more sales and more trash.
鈥淭his is my dream job,鈥� he said as he supervised a team of 10 sorters sifting through the garbage bags.
鈥淚鈥檓 very confident we will at least get very close to 90%,鈥� said Vogel, though it will be a few days before the sorting is finished and they鈥檒l know for certain how close the stadium came to meeting its goal.
Vogel is one of the people leading the push to make US Bank Stadium the first permanent 鈥淶ero Waste鈥� stadium in the NFL. He says other stadiums may claim to be 鈥淶ero Waste鈥� but are not, because they send more than 10% of their waste for incineration.
The NFL says it鈥檚 a big priority to hold more 鈥淶ero Waste鈥� Super Bowls in the future, and for the stadiums to commit to implementing 鈥淶ero Waste鈥� policies in the long term. But the infrastructure at the host stadium is key.
鈥淢ost stadiums won鈥檛 try and do this when they鈥檙e first built,鈥� Vogel said. 鈥淭hey just want to get the operations down鈥� they want to make sure they get the food out before they worry about what happens on the back end.鈥�
The 2015 Super Bowl in Phoenix succeeded in diverting 90% of its waste from landfills, but didn鈥檛 manage to maintain that standard after the day itself, NFL environmental director Jack Groh says.
The needed infrastructure wasn鈥檛 in place to properly turn food waste, cups and those grease-stained pizza boxes into compost, which can then be used in fertilizing soil.
鈥淓ach year we kind of start with an empty slate and look at each community,鈥� he said.
In Atlanta, which will host next year鈥檚 Super Bowl, there isn鈥檛 a commercial composting facility within a reasonable distance of the stadium, Groh said.
Minneapolis is already known for having stronger sustainability programs than many other large cities, but the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, Hennepin County and the city all supported and pushed for the effort, Vogel said. 鈥淪ince (the stadium) is partly publicly funded, they wanted it to be sustainable.鈥�
About 50,000 thousand Minneapolis homes participate in a composting program, according to the Hennepin Recovery Energy Center. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 probably better than most other (similar-sized) US cities,鈥� says Dave Newport, director of the Environmental Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
鈥淎ll our other stadiums in Minneapolis are super sustainable,鈥� Vogel said. 鈥淭arget Field, where the Twins play, has a monthly diversion rate of around 70%.鈥�
鈥淭his is a whole new level for us and the stadium,鈥� Groh said.
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