Not only is LSU the national champion in football, it is also the Game Day Recycling Challenge National Champion after beating the second place university, Clemson.
The ‘total recycled’ category was the one LSU competed in, with 127,940 pounds of recycled trash. This amounts to 168 metric tons of carbon dioxide avoided for greenhouse gas stations. Clemson had 78,157 pounds in second place, and Ohio State came in third with 46,102 pounds.
The University also won the challenge in 2015 and 2016.
According to Executive Director of Facility and Property Oversight Tammy Millican, the University faces steep competition every year.
“Every major university participates; it’s highly competitive,” Millican said.
Facility and Property Oversight took steps to ensure the University came out on top. In the past the department asked people to take a selfie recycling and gave away prizes. This year, it organized the ‘Neaux Trash Talk’ competition, in which campus organizations competed to see which group could recycle the most during its tailgate. Facility and Property Oversight also encouraged volunteers to pick up trash left on campus from game days.
This year, Tiger Stadium sold beer cans inside the stadium for the first time. Dumpsters were placed inside and around the stadium near concessions to try to capture these cans.
Facility and Property Oversight also spoke with many VIP guests and encouraged them to properly dispose of the cardboard and other food they get catered.
“I think those are the things that pushed us over the edge. We improve our performance every year based on the passion of our students to volunteer,” the Assistant Director for Campus Sustainability Sarah Temple said.
Only one game counts toward the challenge, and the University chose the Nov. 30 Texas A&M game. With this being Joe Burrow’s last game at Tiger Stadium, many fans from across Louisiana piled into the stadium.
The Game Day Recycling Challenge is organized through a partnership of the National Wildlife Federation, College and University Recycling Coalition , RecycleMania Inc. and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s WasteWise Program.
Programs at the University are working on new ways to continue to recycle as much as they can and improve the University’s carbon footprint. Programs coming like the ‘Black Soldier Fly’ are using black soldier flies to compost food waste from dining halls and football games and using this compost for trees and flower beds.
“We can use things like a half-eaten hamburger… for the betterment of the University,” Millican said.