EPA Regional Office Reports Results of Game Day Challenge

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 5, has announced that its 2010 Game Day Challenge College Football Competition has ended up diverting 130,000 pounds of waste material from landfills in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin. 

“Notre Dame won the Challenge in the Upper Midwest, diverting 37,600 pounds of waste for the Green Team,” says Bruce Sypniewski, director of EPA Region 5’s Land and Chemical Division. “All 11 schools that participated in the Challenge are winners in EPA’s book for tackling waste at one of their home games.”

Universities that participated in the Challenge are the following: Bowling Green State University, Central Michigan University, Illinois State University, Indiana University, Northwestern University, Ohio University, Purdue University, the Ohio State University, University of Michigan, University of Minnesota and the University of Notre Dame.

During October 2010, each school tracked the amount of recycled, composted, reused, donated and/or disposed of waste during one home football game. The competition was sponsored by EPA’s WasteWise program, a voluntary effort through which organizations eliminate municipal solid waste and select industrial wastes.

Nationally, 79 colleges and universities participated in the Game Day Challenge. Combined, the participating schools diverted more than 500,000 pounds of waste from landfills.