Mississippi State University’s Environmental Collaborative Office has joined with the athletic department to promote recycling on game days.
MSU ECO director Jeremiah Dumas said recycling is a big concern on campus.
“With sustainability being a key issue on this campus, we basically tried to look at the athletic season and see what we can do, and recycling was one of the major initiatives that came out of that,” he said. “We knew we needed to do something, and recycling was one of the things we could do to have a more environmentally friendly athletic season.”
Dumas said MSU ECO has set up cardboard recycling boxes to collect recyclable materials at the home football games.
“We take aluminum, glass and plastic,” he said. “We have bins set up in the Junction, around Barnes & Noble and they are all around the stadium as well.”
Dumas said MSU ECO also has bags for tailgaters on removable poles throughout the Junction and around Barnes & Noble to attach to their tent if a recycling bin is not close by.
“One of the key things most people need to realize is that we have poles in the Junction with rolls of black bags and blue bags. The black bags are for trash and the blue bags are for recycling,” Dumas said.
He said he is hoping to get the word out to tailgaters and game-goers to make sure everyone is aware of the project.
“This is all part of the Keep it Clean Campaign, and in an effort to be environmentally friendly as we can, we are trying not to print a lot of flyers and stuff. But Greg Byrne and his wife Regina are on the video board before the game telling everyone to recycle during the games, and it is on the game day Web site,” he said. “But, the biggest promotion is having the boxes outside the stadium so people can see them.”
Bobby Tomlinson, associate director of game day operations, said the first home football game did not result in as much participation as expected.
“The Jackson State game was our first game, so I know it is going to take a little while to get everyone to help us with this cause,” he said. “I think we would have liked to have seen a little more participation last game, but I definitely think it is a step in the right direction.”
Dumas said although ECO did not collect as many recyclable materials as he hoped, the feedback thus far has been encouraging.
“We heard overwhelmingly that people were glad to see recycling on game day, so it was a good first step for sure,” he said.
Tomlinson said the athletic department is hoping the recycling program will do well.
“The athletic department is very supportive,” he said. “This is not only benefiting the athletic department, but the entire university and the community. I think we are headed in a good direction, and I think we will have nothing but a positive result.”
Nisreen Cain, ECO MSU member and Green Starkville founder, said she hopes recycling on game days will be successful.
“A lot of people are aware of recycling and trying to educate people about recycling, so I think all the efforts of ECO MSU are going to be very successful,” Cain said.
She said she thinks the program is going to tremendously affect MSU.
“I think this is a social responsibility to the university that we need to do, and it gives us a chance to showcase that our university is not only supportive of athletics on game days, but of recycling too,” Cain said.
Dumas said this is an athletic -wide campaign, so there will be bins placed all home football, basketball and baseball games.