Everyone Wins with Recycling at the Skydome

The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ) recently awarded a $10,000 grant to Northern Arizona University to promote recycling at J. Lawrence Walkup Skydome. NAU officials have used the grant to purchase recycling bins to collect recyclable items during NAU football and basketball games and other events at the Skydome. NAU also is placing messages promoting recycling on the stadium's four electronic billboards and is running ads and radio announcements encouraging recycling.

ADEQ’s partnership with NAU athletics is part of the department’s effort to promote recycling at sports facilities in Arizona. ADEQ has had a partnership with the University of Arizona for recycling at its sports venues during the past two years, and the department recently announced a similar effort with Arizona State University.

“We are absolutely delighted to be working with NAU to promote recycling at the Skydome," ADEQ Director Steve Owens said. "This program has been a huge success at the other sports venues where we have implemented it, and we look forward to similar results at NAU. A lot of items being thrown away at sports events can be recycled, and this program not only is a great way to get Lumberjacks fans to recycle at the Skydome, it also will remind them to make recycling a part of their everyday lives."

At a September ceremony in the Skydome, Director Owens presented NAU President John Haeger and Athletic Director Jim Fallis with a large ceremonial check celebrating the beginning of the ADEQ-NAU recycling partnership. President Haeger noted that the Skydome recycling program is one of the key components in the greening of NAU along with the recent construction of some of the most environmentally sensitive buildings in the country. NAU has had an ambitious recycling program on campus for a number of years.

“NAU is a real leader in sustainability, and the fact that President Haeger and Athletic Director Fallis took the time to be on hand for the check presentation shows how committed NAU is to recycling and to protecting our environment,” Owens said.

ADEQ’s innovative effort to promote recycling at sports facilities grew out of a partnership that ADEQ developed with the Arizona Cardinals when the team moved from Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe to its new home at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale in 2006.

“We had been talking with the Cardinals about recycling at their home games, and the move to the new stadium created a real opportunity to move forward with a partnership,” Owens said. “We had the ability to get in on the ground floor and make recycling part of the daily routine at the stadium. The team was starting a new era in a new home, and we were offering a new way of doing things and getting the recycling message out when people were paying attention at football games. Our success with the Cardinals showed us that recycling at sports venues not only is doable but also can have a very big impact.”

Owens noted that ADEQ’s relationship with the Cardinals led to the department working closely with the National Football League to help make Super Bowl XLII, which was played at UofP Stadium last February, the “greenest Super Bowl ever.”

“This was the first time ever that the NFL had partnered directly with a state environmental agency to promote recycling and other environmental practices at a Super Bowl,” Owens said. “It was a landmark event.”

With support from ADEQ, the U of A began recycling at all Wildcat home basketball games in 2006 and expanded recycling to Wildcat football games and other athletic events the next year. Like NAU, ASU began recycling at home football games this season, and ADEQ is working with the Sun Devils to have recycling at home basketball games and other sports events as well.

“Recycling at university sports venues will work well because NAU and the other universities already have good recycling programs in place elsewhere on campus and all the universities are committed to sustainable practices,” Owens said. “We are very excited to be working with NAU on this very important effort.”