Zero waste

From university sports facilities to the Super Bowl itself, stadium managers continue to pursue ambitious waste-diversion goals. The gold standard of a zero-waste-to-landfill system has emerged as the ultimate prize in stadium sustainability — but as with any materials-management strategy, zero waste is a mixed bag of benefits and challenges.

Increasingly, university students and sustainability offices are pressuring their institutions to make the switch to zero-waste events. Even when events fall short of this goal — usually defined as 90-percent diversion from landfills — organizers who plan for zero waste drastically reduce the occasion's carbon footprint. Increasingly, university students and sustainability offices are pressuring their institutions to make the switch to zero-waste events. Even when events fall short of this goal — usually defined as 90-percent diversion from landfills — organizers who plan for zero waste drastically reduce the occasion's carbon footprint.

If you were designing an entertainment complex with a waste stream that's hard to handle, you couldn't do much better than a golf course. These oases of relaxation (or frustration, depending on how your game is going) combine all the worst challenges in the waste handling industry: Tremendous distances between garbage cans, food waste from the clubhouse restaurant, and no ending — ever — of grass clippings and other yard waste.