The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Texas Athletics Sustainability continues to improve its zero waste efforts at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium
12.21.2017 | Texas Athletics, Bleed Orange. Live Green.
Season at a Glance
During the 2017 Texas Football season, the Texas Athletics Sustainability program -- sponsored by BASF, Coca-Cola, Fox 7 Austin and Republic Services -- continued to improve its zero waste efforts at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. Aligning itself with The University of Texas' campus-wide zero waste goal, Texas Athletics is striving to reach zero waste at Texas Football home games by the start of the 2020 season.
To reach zero waste, 90 percent of waste generated at the stadium must be diverted into either compost or recycling. On top of these traditional efforts, the Sustainability team also introduced a food recovery program, with the help of the Central Texas Food Bank, where team members collected untouched meals that otherwise would have been discarded and donated them to local families in need. These efforts further assisted in reducing the amount of waste going to landfills while providing a valuable community need.
From the 2016 to 2017 season, the diversion rate at DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium increased from 38 percent to about 50 percent. In the six home games played in 2017, the sustainability program was able to:
- Donate over 3,900 pounds of food (3,266 meals) to fight hunger in Central Texas;
- Recycle 75.29 tons of waste (150,580 pounds);
- Compost 26.64 tons of food (53,280 pounds);
- Increase the number of volunteers from 350 to 691;
- Increase volunteer hours from 1,825 to 2,697;
- Establish a social media presence on Twitter (@TxSportsSustain); and Instagram (@bleedorangelivegreen).
"We're extremely proud of the steps our sustainability program took toward reaching zero waste this past season, but we still have a lot of work ahead of us," said Executive Senior Associate Athletics Director Arthur Johnson. "Moving forward, the program will need to continue to improve its zero waste strategy by increasing volunteer hours, continuing to educate fans, and improving postgame clean-up strategies. Texas Athletics Sustainability's goal for next season is to reach a 70 percent diversion rate, putting Texas Athletics on the path to hitting 90 percent by 2020."
Season Highlights
Texas Athletics Sustainability recruited campus groups as volunteers for the Sustainability Spirit Squad who are responsible for educating fans on the concourses, and the Sustainability Sort Squad who are responsible for sorting trash into landfill, compost, and recycling streams. Both squads maintained a constant presence on gamedays at DKR-Texas Memorial Stadium and had strong improvements during the K-State and Kansas games.
Sustainable Saturday
On Oct. 7 during the Texas Football vs. K-State game, the sustainability program hosted "Sustainable Saturday." This particular gameday was organized to highlight Texas Athletics' zero waste efforts and increase public awareness of the initiative. A total of 163 volunteers worked on Sustainable Saturday, the largest number of gameday volunteers to date.
Kansas Game
The Texas Football vs. Kansas game on Nov. 11 saw the highest diversion rate of the season (55 percent). Over 200 volunteers worked for the Sustainability Spirit and Sort squads, including an additional group of Sort Squad volunteers who sorted Sunday morning after the game.
Call to Action
Zero waste is an initiative that everybody experiences every day and everywhere. To succeed in these goals, Texas Athletics needs the help of the Longhorn Nation. Fans may participate by properly disposing of their waste in the labeled bins along the concourse and volunteering at any of our zero waste events at football, baseball, or softball games. If you are interested in learning more about Texas Athletics Sustainability or want to participate, email sustainability@athletics.utexas.edu; visit TexasAthletics; or follow @TXSportsSustain on Twitter and @bleedorangelivegreen on Instagram.