They have finally found a home for the purses. Whether it was a Fendi
shoulder sling or a Trader Joe’s tote, the thousands of bags that Vikings
fans have relinquished at U.S. Bank Stadium security gates during the past
two years wound up in a landfill or incinerator.
But in the drive to score what the NFL and stadium officials hope will be
the first zero-waste Super Bowl and launch the first zero-waste football
stadium those fans can now donate their bags to the women’s nonprofit
Dress for Success.
That’s one of the more novel solutions the stadium has adopted in its effort
to dramatically increase the amount of gameday trash that is put to good use
through recycling or composting. “There are Coach purses our women are
ecstatic,” said Stephanie Silvers, executive director of Dress for Success,
which provides financial education and job-hunting support for 1,000 women a
year
It’s taken awhile to get to this point, stadium and NFL officials
acknowledge. A year ago, the stadium was recycling 20 percent of the garbage
that left the stadium after every game and event up to 40 tons in total
mostly food waste and non-recyclable containers. And those purses. Now “we
are well down the path,” said Mike Vekich, chairman of the Minnesota Sports
Facilities Authority.
But getting there took a lot of work. In the last year, the food vendors
have all switched to compostable containers. The stadium purchased some 375
clearly marked, $1,500 single and triple compartmented bins, which now stand
like sentinels along the concourses and in all the suites. Then there are
three massive compactors in the bowels of the building to compress each type
of waste before it’s loaded into waiting trucks.
The stadium management firm, SMG, has hired a sustainability manager,
arranged to donate all unopened food from the kitchens to food shelves, and
contracted to deliver recyclables and organics to the Hennepin County
Recycling and Transfer Station in Brooklyn Park and a composting facility in
Rosemount.
“It’s an unbelievably large operation,” said Paul Kroening, Hennepin
County’s supervising environmentalist. “It takes a lot to feed 50 or 60
thousand people.” And now, with Super Bowl LII just weeks away, U.S. Bank
Stadium is ready for its oh-so-green debut.
12,000 Trees
The National Football League has long had environmental goals for each Super
Bowl, and they have increased over time, said Jack Groh, director of the
league’s environmental program including some that football fans might
find surprising. It almost always includes tree planting and other projects
to balance the extra carbon emissions produced by the massive event. Last
fall, the NFL helped pay to plant 12,000 trees across Minnesota and provided
funds for community gardens. It also hosted an electronics recycling event
at the Minnesota Zoo that collected 42,000 pounds of waste.
No question, some cities make it easier than others. San Francisco, for
example, “knocked it out of the park” for Super Bowl 50 in 2016, said Lewis
Blaustein, a New York sports marketing consultant who writes
the GreenSportsBlog. Local officials had everything from ride-share bikes
and water bottles to biodiesel buses for what was billed as “The Greenest
Super Bowl Ever.”
Houston last year not so much.
“As far as I could tell, they did nothing,” Blaustein said.
And the Phoenix Super Bowl in 2015 was zero waste for one day, said Groh.
(Zero waste doesn’t mean zero exactly. It means a 90 percent rate of
recycling and composting.)
And the host community this year? “Minnesota is incredible,” Groh said. “I
say that every year, but I actually mean it this year.”
It doesn’t hurt that the Twin Cities already has a robust recycling and
composting system for businesses, partly because the state charges
relatively high fees for waste that goes to a landfill or incinerator.
It also has an active and well-organized nonprofit community that’s finding
ways to re-use and distribute everything from food to banners to carpeting
once the game is over, Groh said.
To read the full story, visit
www.startribune.com/nfl-s-super-challenge-recycling-food-wrappers-and
-beer-cups-from-60-000-fans/470145563/.