On any given Sunday the morning after a University of Michigan home football game, the Big House is crawling with hundreds of volunteers. The mission of the students and families from Father Gabriel Richard High School who show up early in the morning and stay for hours is to round up and sort tons of waste left behind by the crowds at the world’s biggest football stadium.
Recyclable materials go in blue bags, while compostable materials go in green bags. And in case there’s any doubt, the jumbo score boards are lit up with graphics telling what’s recyclable and compostable. Cardboard pizza boxes, aluminum cans and plastic bottles and containers are all recyclable. Food trays, napkins, coffee lids, soda cups, cheese cups and lids, deli wraps, popcorn bags, spoons, forks, knives, straws and food waste are all compostable.