EPA Announces 2011 Game Day Challenge Winners

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently announced the winners of the 2011 Game Day Challenge, a competition among U.S. colleges and universities with the goal of lowering waste generated at college football games and increasing participation in and awareness of waste reduction programs. As part of the challenge, more than 75 schools across the nation designed a waste reduction plan for one 2011 regular season home football game, measured their results, and submitted them to EPA.

The winners of the 2011 Game Day Challenge are:

Waste Minimization Champion (Least amount of waste generated per attendee) - Central Connecticut State University

Diversion Rate Champion (Highest combined recycling and composting rate) - University of California, Davis

Greenhouse Gas Reduction Champion (Greatest greenhouse gas reductions from diverting waste) - University of Virginia

Recycling Champion (Highest recycling rate) - University of Virginia

Organics Reduction Champion (Highest organics reduction rate) - Marist College

According to EPA, this past fall, 78 participating colleges and universities (including 2.7 million fans) diverted more than 500,000 pounds of waste from football games, prevented nearly 810 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions equivalent to the annual emissions from 159 passenger vehicles.

The participating colleges and universities, including the fans, took one step further to green the gridiron and help build awareness around the importance of recycling, reducing, and reusing. In 2010, Americans kept 85 million tons of waste out of landfills by recycling and composting, boosting the U.S. recycling rate to 34 percent. Out of the 165 million tons of waste that went into landfills, food scraps made up 20 percent. Food is the single largest waste stream that ends up in landfills. To address food waste, EPA’s Food Waste Challenge under the Sustainable Materials Management program encourages schools to donate surplus and wholesome fresh food from sporting venues and cafeterias, instead of throwing it away.

The competition was sponsored by EPA’s WasteWise program, a voluntary program through which organizations eliminate municipal solid waste and select industrial wastes, which in turn benefits their bottom line and the environment.

For more information on participant results, please visit:

EPA: 2011 Game Day Challenge Results

For more information on how the results are determined, please visit:
EPA: Game Day Challenge Measuring and Reporting

For more information on the Food Recovery Challenge, please visit:

EPA: WasteWise: Food Recovery Challenge