Pennsylvania Resources Council Launches Container Recycling for Steelers Home Games
At the final three Pittsburgh Steelers home games of the 2010 regular season and a new year’s day winter classic hockey game, the Pennsylvania Resources Council (PRC) and its partners collected recyclables at tailgating parties outside Heinz Field.
The “Let’s Tackle Recycling” campaign collected glass containers, aluminum cans, and plastic bottles and cups, as well as cardboard, for recycling. This pilot initiative will continue at the January 15th Steelers playoff home game as well as any additional home playoff games. “Let’s Tackle Recycling” is sponsored by PRC and the Alcoa Foundation in partnership with Alco Parking, City of Pittsburgh Environmental Services, Greenstar, Pittsburgh Steelers, and the Sports & Exhibition Authority.
“We are very pleased with the participation from the fans,” says Dave Mazza, PRC regional director. They also collected a lot of recyclables. “Right now we’re at about 13,000 pounds of material collected,” says Mazza. “While glass is technically prohibited in the stadium,” says Mazza, “we knew there would be glass for recycling.” A composition study of recyclables collected found that 40% was aluminum cans, 30% glass bottles, 20% plastic bottles and cups, and 10% cardboard. The cardboard is mostly from beer cases. That translates into about 2,700 lbs. of glass or around 5,000 bottles.
Alco Parking attendants distributed 30-gallon blue bags with recycling instructions to fans as they entered six designated parking lots. Tailgaters were asked to place all glass bottles, cans, and plastic containers in the bags during their pre-game parties. A recycling team circulated throughout the lots to provide additional recycling bags, help collect filled bags, and encourage fans to recycle and keep out contaminants. Sandwich boards with recycling messages proved especially useful to encourage participation. Recycling team members carried full bags to the curb where they were loaded onto a Greenstar truck for their trip to the recycling center.
The goal of the effort, according Mazza, was for PRC, which has done a lot of special event recycling, to “design a system that could be easily replicated and incorporated as a regular part of the waste management procedures at the stadium.” With these initial games a success, Mazza says that for the Steelers 2011 season, they will recycle at all eight regular season home games. “At the end of that,” says Mazza, “we’ll look for our partners to adopt this as an ongoing program.” Tailgaters are now looking for the recycling bags, according to Mazza, confirming their assessment that the project is having a positive effect. More
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About the institute
The Glass Packaging Institute (GPI) is the trade association representing the North American glass container industry. Through GPI, glass container manufacturers speak with one voice to advocate industry standards, promote sound environmental policies and educate packaging professionals. GPI member companies manufacture glass containers for food, beverage, cosmetic and many other products. GPI also has associate members that represent a broad range of suppliers and closure manufacturers.
