Vandals build environment-friendly habits
Jordan Sanders, the recycle coordinator of the University of Idaho Sustainability Center, has one goal in mind come Vandal game day — less dumpster diving and more recycling.
While Vandals young and old barbecued, drank beer by the case and tailgated in the Kibbie Dome parking lot before Saturday’s football game against South Alabama State, volunteers with the UI Sustainability Center dispersed themselves among the crowd to promote recycling efforts.
“What we are trying to do is reduce the amount of recyclables that go into the waste stream,” Sanders said.
Volunteers set up collapsible recycling bins next to all garbage cans in and around the parking lot and handed out plastic bags to tailgaters for the disposal of aluminum cans, plastics and corrugated cardboard. Groups with a full recycling bag could either bring it to the UI Sustainability Tent to be sorted, or wait for a volunteer to swing by and pick it up.
Sophomore Walter Odedo volunteered to fulfill a class requirement for an Environmental Science class — like many of the other volunteers.
“At first, it was about getting service learning hours,” Odedo said. “But it turned out to be a cool, educational experience — most people were really willing to recycle and some had already sorted their waste and recyclables.”
After the game, Sanders said he and others from the UI Sustainability Center suited up and dived into a process he calls “waste characterization,” to further analyze the impact and effectiveness of recycling receptacles inside the Kibbie Dome.
“More or less, we hop in a trashcan in a Tyvek Suit and puncture resistant gloves and we pull trash out to sort it in a respective category, and then classify it and weigh it,” Sanders said. “We’re finding out what recyclables and compost are going into landfill…and how much is intending to be recycled.”
After swimming in a pile of about 1,440 pounds of waste, Sanders found Vandal tailgaters had tossed about 20 pounds of recyclable aluminum, 41 pounds of recyclable plastic, and 120 pounds of corrugated cardboard into trashcans meant for landfill waste.
The UI Sustainability Center also analyzed the 101-pound accumulation from recycle bins inside the Kibbie Dome and found about 31 pounds of it was aluminum and plastic that could be recycled. The other 70 pounds of waste from the recycle bins was garbage that was not able to be recycled at all.
The majority of reclaimed recyclables are processed at the Moscow Recycling Center, Sanders said. The Moscow Recycling Center pays $.40 for every pound of aluminum, and the UI Sustainability Center receives a significant amount of revenue from the amount of aluminum cans it collects and the money is used to buy garbage and recycle bins for the UI campus, or used to fund events the UI Sustainability Center puts on, Sanders said.
Sanders said the Game Day Recycling movement began a year or two ago with his predecessor, and he’s been trying to improve the process and the accessibility of recycling at home football games since.
“Folks are out here to have fun,” he said. “We aren’t trying to add one more thing they have to do, we just want to get people in the habit of recycling, and make it as effortless and efficient as we can.”
George Wood Jr. can be reached at [email protected]