Through rain or shine, fans gather in masses to tailgate before home football games bringing with them an equally immense amount of trash that is visible throughout campus even after the fun has ceased.   
“There is nothing wrong about having fun, but if fans could use the green bins more it would allow us to recycle more,” Fred Fellner, Assistant Director of Landscape services said. 
According to LSU Recycles in 2009, home football games produced a solid waste totaling 264.15 tons and recyclable material totaling 25.44 tons.  This seems like a miniscule amount of material being recycled, but it is a big step from past years recycling history. 
On home game days, Landscape Services provides 2,000 green bins for recyclable materials and 3,360 yellow bins for trash.  The green bins are donated by the city, while the yellow bins are supplied by the athletic department and “are much more sustainable than the cardboard boxes that were previously used,” Andres Harris, Recycling/Solid Waste Manager of Landscape Development, said. 
On home football game days the public can call the Work Order Control at 578-3186 or 578-0970 at any time for them to clean up a accumulated garbage for their convenience.  
“I am always looking forward to how we can improve,” Fellner said. “I never look at is as ‘Oh woe is me.” 
Members of the football team are not the only ones who prepare for football season months in advance.  Landscape Services begins “pre-season protocol in mid-August,” Fellner said.  This begins the preparation and planning to make sure the campus is in order for home games.  Pre-game meetings are held the Mondays before a home game to issue checklist packets with tasks that are to be completed each day through the Sunday after the game. 
While flipping through his week checklist, which is covered in red ink and checkmarks, for the upcoming game, Fellner said “We remain as organized as possible so we can be the most efficient as possible.”
The organizational charts span from campus maps dividing the grounds into zones to ensure everyone is where they need to be on the respective days to coordinating the three work shifts: Saturday’s first crew of 32 LSU employees – 4 a.m.-noon, then a crew of 26 from noon to 8 p.m.; Sunday’s crew consists of 133 inmates and job core cadets who work from 4am until the campus is clean.
Immediately upon scanning the littered campus, it seems virtually impossible for the grounds to be cleared and spotless for school on Monday, but Landscape Services manages to complete the challenge.   
The Sunday crew begins by pulling all containers in the street for the convenience of the dump trucks.  The garbage trucks rapidly clear up the streets of the containers, and the recycling trucks are quick to follow by picking up the recyclable matter. 
“The more the fans put in the cans and the recycle bins, the easier our job is,” Reginald Allen, a lead man on the Facility Services Team, said. 
The ecological items are taken by The Recycling Foundation, which the university has a contract with, and turned into a useable state.
For the past two years, the university has participated in Recycle Mania which is a 10-week competition for universities across the United States to submit the pounds of recyclable substances collected.  The college with the highest number wins the contest.  For the 2010 Per Capita Classic, LSU ranked 154 out of 346 schools, however, compared to other Southeastern Conference institutions LSU ranked second and third in the Gorilla Prize division. 
 
Sources:
Andres Harris – Recycling/Solid Waste Manager
Fred Fellner – Assistant Director of Landscape Services
http://www.recycling.lsu.edu/
http://www.recyclemania.com/
 
 
 
Links:
http://www.recyclemania.com/
http://www.recyclingfoundation.com/
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/lsurecycles?ref=ts
Contact Information:
Claire Caillier
337-280-9198
[email protected]