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Western Viking Athletics, the AS Recycle Center, and the Office of Sustainability are teaming up to make all home basketball games "Green Games" this season, with an emphasis on waste reduction. This program exists thanks to the initiative and efforts put forth by Katie Rothenberg, Assistant Marketing Director of Athletics. The AS Recycle Center is providing recycling and compost barrels in the Carver Gym foyer for each game. The barrels are monitored by Western staff and volunteers who are there to provide education about recycling and waste sorting. So far staff members have had few volunteers in the initiative, but they are hoping the project will continue to build momentum. As an incentive, the Athletic Department is offering free admission to basketball games for anyone who volunteers to monitor sorting barrels pre- and post-game, and during half-time. Athletic Interns are getting involved by sweeping grandstands after each game and sorting discarded materials into recycling or compost barrels. The "sorting process" is the central focus, putting different types of waste into an appropriate disposal container. Proper sorting emphasizes the "reduce" and "reuse" aspects of recycling. Most concession items and containers are either compostable or recyclable but they usually end up in a landfill.
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The Green Game effort is contributing to campus goals to eliminate landfill materials, a program also known as the Zero Waste Western initiative. Since the commencement of the 2011-2012 Basketball Season, waste sorting has improved, and plans to continue the Green Games initiative into the 2012-2013 Volleyball and Basketball seasons are currently underway. "The difference in the amount of recyclable waste that is being diverted from landfill is very impressive and encouraging" said Western's 10X12 Project Leader Carol Berry, "The training is simple and quick, and a free pass to the games is a great perk!" The Athletics Department and the Office of Sustainability are extending an invitation to anyone who would like to volunteer their
time, both to learn more about recycling and composting and to help WWU and the Athletics Department educate others. "Being a volunteer at the barrels is fun and gratifying" Carol Berry remarked, who regularly volunteers at the basketball games, "the experience is helping me learn small details that can support or sabotage a recycling program." Berry emphasized that more volunteers are needed for the remaining games of the 2012 basketball season. At present no one has accepted this invitation.
Western's efforts in recycling continue to have a positive effect the immediate campus environment, but they can also directly improve environmental conditions in the surrounding region. Our landfill material is ultimately deposited near Roosevelt, WA in Klickitat County, about 337 miles southeast from Bellingham. The Green Games initiative is a good opportunity to be more responsible with our waste at home, but also an opportunity to let our actions communicate Western's values to others in our region. Reducing the quantity of materials that we deposit in Klickitat County is a positive step toward promoting sustainable behavior on a larger scale. And we could reduce that quantity by almost ¾, according to statistics from the Waste Monitoring Staff at the OS. At the present time, an estimated 73 percent of university waste is compostable, such as concession items at athletic events. If sorted properly at the source, Western could divert the vast majority of its waste stream to Whatcom County's Green Earth Technologies, a local industry, which converts compostable waste into clean compostable material that can be reused for natural soil enrichment rather than landfill deposition.
