EPA, NFL Join Forces for Recycling Effort

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the National Football League and other partners collected and recycled bottles and cans in the parking lot of Aloha Stadium during Pro Bowl 2007 Feb. 10 to encourage recycling at sporting events.

The EPA, National Football League, Boys and Girls Clubs of Hawaii, Honolulu Recovery Systems and Aloha Stadium participated in the effort. Like last year, cans and bottles were collected for recycling from the stadium’s surrounding parking lot areas designated for tailgating.

This year the effort expanded collection to include additional parking lot areas, with the goal to collect more than 12,000 cans and bottles, yielding $600 through deposit rebates. Community Energy, a green energy marketer and developer, has committed to match the money raised, with proceeds going to the Boys and Girls Clubs of Hawaii.

“Concerts and sporting events provide a great opportunity to reinforce the importance of recycling,” Jeff Scott, division director for the EPA Pacific Southwest Region’s Waste Division, says. “In addition to conserving valuable resources, recycling reduces greenhouse gas and other emissions.”

To make the Pro Bowl a carbon neutral event, Community Energy also donated renewable energy credits to offset greenhouse gas emissions from the Pro Bowl and the NFL Pro Bowl Tailgate Party. The EPA is working with the NFL to calculate the net carbon savings from its Pro Bowl activities.

To further “green” the Pro Bowl the NFL is sponsoring tree-planting projects at several schools. One of the schools has even committed to develop a tree nursery to raise native species trees.

The Pro Bowl recycling event is one of many public space recycling projects undertaken by EPA’s “Recycle on the Go” program. Recycle on the Go encourages recycling at concerts, sporting events and other locations, by working with partners to encourage people to recycle wherever they go by making recycling easy and convenient. The EPA and Aloha Stadium authorities will meet after Pro Bowl 2007 to discuss how to further “green” Aloha Stadium.

EPA is working toward a goal of a 35 percent recycling rate nationwide.

For more information about Recycle on the Go, please visit http://www.epa.gov/recycleonthego.