TIGER TV ONLINE REPORTER
This Saturday at the Florida game students not only had the chance to root on their team but they were given an opportunity to be green.
There were 23 recycling bins placed strategically through the upper west and east decks and the north front deck of the student section. This was the first game that recycling bins were placed inside the stadium and not just around campus.
Melissa Seanard, an architecture graduate student, pitched the idea to Tiger Athletic Foundation on April 1, but she first began working on the proposal in January.
In each section there were student volunteers stationed to help collect the recycling. Including Seanard there were 14 student volunteers all together.
Having the recycling bins inside the stadium did help increase the amount of recyclables collected. According to Andre Harris, manager of solid waste and recycling at the University, typically around four tons of recyclables are collected. This game there was 5.6 tons collected from inside the stadium alone and 6.13 collected during the day around campus.
However, only 1.8 tons of the overall recycling from the day was actually collected during the game. The rest of the recyclables collected in the stadium were collected Sunday morning during clean up.
“The majority of products – recyclable or not – are left in the stands during the game,” Seanard said. “If people aren’t throwing things away at all it doesn’t matter if there are recycling bins.”
Seanard said that the west upper deck had the greatest success in collecting recyclables during the game because those volunteers were going through the trash and taking items that could be recycled out. The west deck collected at least seven to eight bags full according to Seanard where as the student section collected about two bags and the east deck only collected one bag.
Seanard said that she feels it would be more effective for future games to have more volunteers help clean the stadium Sunday morning rather than watching the bins during the game. Seanard said that they still need volunteers and if a student is interested in helping they should contact her.
