West Virginia University’s football program has been given a rare opportunity to not only defeat one of its opponents twice in the same season, but to avenge a loss as well.

WVU and Mountaineer fans will take on the University of Colorado, Auburn and five other schools in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Game Day Recycling Challenge, a friendly competition for colleges and universities to promote recycling at their home football games. The challenge is a collaborative effort between the EPA and the participating schools. Eight schools were chosen and each selected one home football game in October to enter into the challenge.

WVU picked its Saturday, Oct. 17 home game against Marshall University to track and report both recycling and waste data. The information will then be used by the EPA to rank the eight participating schools, and the winner will be announced in November.

“In response to the EPA’s Game Day Recycling Challenge, we hope that WVU and Marshall fans alike will help us collect as much recycling as possible,” said Barbara Angeletti, WVU’s recycling coordinator. “WVU is representing the Big East Conference, and we have the opportunity to beat Harvard, Auburn, Colorado, and Michigan. We are all Mountaineers, and we have an opportunity to shine.”

The eight participating schools are WVU (vs. Marshall, Oct. 17); Auburn (vs. Kentucky, Oct. 17); Brigham Young (vs. TCU, Oct. 24); Harvard (vs. Princeton, Oct. 24); North Carolina State (vs. Duke, Oct. 10); Ohio University (vs. Kent State, Oct. 24); University of Colorado (vs. Kansas, Oct. 16); and the University of Michigan (vs. Penn State, Oct. 24).

Recycling and trash will be reported to the EPA in pounds. Because of the varying sizes of stadiums involved, schools will be ranked using a formula based on their per capita weight of recyclables.

A crowd of over 60,000 is expected for Saturday’s WVU-Marshall contest at Mylan Puskar Stadium, where recycling efforts have been in place for four years.

“WVU and its athletic department have been at the forefront of game day recycling since the inception of the ‘Mountaineers Recycle’ to collect recyclables in the stadium and in the parking lots,” said Greg Adolfson, sustainability officer for the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection. “On a typical game day, thousands of cans and plastic bottles are pitched into recycling bags and recycling bins around the stadium and in the parking lots.

“This [Game Day Challenge] is a pilot program to reduce waste on game days, similar to the EPA’s ‘Recycle Mania.’ Fans attending Saturday’s game need to remember not to throw away recyclables before, during, or after the game.”

Recyclable materials included in the EPA challenge are paper (boxboard/chipboard, programs, newspapers, office paper); beverage containers (plastic bottles and cups, aluminum and steel cans, glass bottles and jars); corrugated cardboard (cardboard boxes); organics (pre and post-consumer food waste and compostable dinnerware that is composted); and trash (municipal solid waste disposed via landfill or incinerator). WVU’s Mountaineers Recycle program collects cans and plastic bottles on game days.

The EPA’s goals for the program include a fair and friendly recycling program; an increase in recycling participation by students, faculty, staff and the community; a heightened awareness of football recycling programs; promoting recycling to lower the waste generated at these events; organizing this event successfully so it can be repeated and possibly expanded to other schools and to include more games.

For more information about the Game Day Recycling Challenge at WVU, contact Barbara Angeletti at 304-293-9500 or 304-216-6761 or email at Barbara.Angeletti@mail.wvu.edu, or Greg Adolfson at 304-926-0499, ext. 1332, or email at gregory.e.adolfson@wv.gov.

-WVU-

10/14/09

CONTACT: Barbara Angeletti, Facilities Management
304-293-9500, 304-216-6761, Barbara.Angeletti@mail.wvu.edu