The聽University of Tennessee spent almost $900,000 in 2007 to send its trash to a landfill. At that time, campus-wide recycling represented 9 percent of total waste. Ten years later, UT spends less than $400,000 a year transporting trash 鈥撀爏aving a full $500,000 annually聽鈥� and聽recycles about 聽30 percent of total waste, UT Recycling Manger Jay Price told the聽Knoxville News Sentinel聽on May 2.
鈥淲e were literally throwing almost $1 million away,鈥� Price聽told the local news outlet. 鈥淪o we felt like there was a lot of room for improvement there.鈥�
A spotless stadium
Indeed, while a massive 18 tons of garbage was hauled out of UT鈥檚 Neyland Stadium and recycled during the 2007 football season, the same amount of waste was recycled during a single game in the 2016 season, with聽some games reaching as much as 25 tons of waste diverted from landfills.
Recycling numbers have increased consistently since Price聽started a decade ago. The UT Recycling team of three full-time employees and 15 student workers聽set a goal in 2014 to make Neyland a 鈥渮ero-waste stadium鈥� by 2020, the newspaper reported.
Zero waste is accomplished by diverting 90 percent of the stadium鈥檚 waste from a landfill, Price explained. Diverting waste can be done through recycling and composting efforts, as well as by donating leftover food from luxury viewing areas and concession stands.
Recycling is done at several stations around the stadium. Staff members and volunteers set up recycling bins in the heavily trafficked tailgating areas and hand out recycling bag in other areas. Price said the staff strategically plans where material is most likely to be tossed in a recycling bin.
鈥淲e go in front of the gates, because everyone has to drop what they鈥檙e carrying (when they enter the stadium),鈥� he said. 鈥淲e鈥檝e discovered that basically everything they鈥檙e carrying is recyclable, because it鈥檚 almost always beverage containers.鈥�
Inside the stadium, trash cans have been matched, and in some cases replaced, with recycling and compost bins.
After the game, workers package leftover food and freeze it for聽Second Harvest Food Bank to pick up, the聽Knoxville News Sentinel reported. A volunteer cleaning crew comes in the next day to pick up leftover waste and place it in the appropriate recycling or compost bin.
And recycling efforts have not stopped there.
What鈥檚 next? The latest step toward a zero-waste stadium is creating a skybox with 100 percent compostable materials. Price said compostable food, napkins, utensils, cups and, the most challenging item to find, plates will be used in the skybox by the end of the 2017 season.
鈥淭hat is our big step forward,鈥� Price聽said. 鈥淲e figured if we can (achieve zero-waste) there, in an area where appearance matters and quality matters, we can do it anywhere.鈥�
Cleaning up the campus
Working to achieve a zero-waste stadium inspired UT Recycling to set the same goal campus-wide. The campus recycles approximately 30 percent of total materials annually, the local news outlet said.
Price told the newspaper that he is confident that the staff and volunteers can continue to increase recycling numbers to reach 90 percent recycled materials by 2025.
Since 2007, campus-wide annual trash disposal spending has decreased $500,000. Cardboard recycling has increased from 100 tons to 400 tons per year. Composted material increased from 175 tons to more than 1,000 tons per year.
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