Central Connecticut State University Wins Recycling Challenge

Central Connecticut State University Wins EPA Recycling

Let’s hear it for Central Connecticut State University. For the won the EPA Recycling Challenge.

Seven schools in New England and more than 75 schools across the nation.

For they all competed to design a waste reduction plan. It was also for one 2011 regular season home football game. Then they measured their results.

Finally, they submitted them to the EPA as part of the challenge.

Central Connecticut State University won in the Waste Minimization category.

That means they had the least amount of waste generated per attendee. Each attendee generated an average of .059 pounds of waste at the game.  In addition, Yale University came in second with an average of 2.19 pounds of waste per attendee.

In addition, the bottle bill in Connecticut makes a difference. For I realized our food service uses tissues for everything, no trays or heavy dishes. That was said by Domenic Forcella. Domenic is the director of environmental health and safety at Central Connecticut State University.

In addition, there’s a limited menu. So there’s no popcorn boxes and basically everything they serve comes wrapped in tissue.

Other Schools in Competition with Connecticut University

Furthermore, other schools that participated in New England were against Central Connecticut State University were:

1. Harvard University
2. Campus Sustainability Initiative at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst
3. Brown University
4. University of Rhode Island
5. Bryant University

Other categories and the winners were furthermore:

Diversion Rate Champion (Highest combined recycling and composting rate) – University of California, Davis

Greenhouse Gas Reduction Champion (Greatest greenhouse gas reductions from diverting waste) – University of Virginia

Recycling Champion (Highest recycling rate) – University of Virginia

Organics Reduction Champion (Highest organics reduction rate) – Marist College

How Much Everyone Diverted

Participating colleges and universities; that’s including 2.7 million fans and Central Connecticut State University Won.

For in total they diverted more than 500,000 pounds of waste from football games this fall.  Thereby preventing nearly 810 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions. For that’s equivalent to the annual emissions from 159 passenger vehicles.

In 2010, Americans boosted the national recycling rate to 34 percent. That’s by keeping 85 million tons of waste out of landfills. All most importantly through recycling and composting. These colleges and universities and their fans took one step further.  Especially to green the gridiron and build awareness. Most noteworthy around the importance of recycling, reducing, and reusing.

More importantly, food scraps made up 20 percent of the 165 million tons of waste. All that went into landfills. EPA’s Food Recovery Challenge under the Sustainable Materials Management program encourages schools to donate surplus and wholesome fresh food from sporting venues and cafeterias. That’s clearly instead of throwing it away to address food waste.

In addition, the competition that Central Connecticut State University won was sponsored by EPA’s WasteWise program. Moreover, that’s a voluntary program. One through which organizations eliminate costly municipal solid waste. In addition to select industrial wastes. Thereby benefiting their bottom line. Finally and for the environment.

Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, (Boston, Mass. – Jan. 11, 2012)