by Brianna Crandall — December 3, 2010—The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced on November 30 the winners of the 2010 Game Day Challenge, in which U.S. colleges and universities competed to reduce the most amount of waste during a home football game.
During the month of October, 77 participating schools targeted more than 2.8 million fans at football games. The schools together diverted more than 500,000 pounds of waste from landfills, which prevented the release of nearly 940 metric tons of carbon dioxide. According to EPA, this is equivalent to the annual greenhouse gas emissions from 179 cars.
Participating schools tracked the amount of recycled, composted, reused, donated, and disposed of waste during one home football game. Winners were determined based on the amount of waste that was diverted from the landfill in relation to the amount of generated waste and the number of people at the game.
2010 Winners:
- Waste Minimization Champion: Ithaca College and University of Tennessee at Martin
- Diversion Rate Champion: University of California, Davis
- Greenhouse Gas Reduction Champion: University of Central Oklahoma
- Recycling Champion: University of Central Oklahoma
- Organics Reduction Champion: Marist College
- Diversion Rate Champion: University of California, Davis
The competition was sponsored by EPA’s WasteWise program, a voluntary program through which organizations eliminate costly municipal solid waste and select industrial wastes, benefiting their bottom line and the environment. Launched in 1994, the program has more than 2,700 members.
