Attendees of Saturday’s football home game against Fort Hays State University may have noticed extra recycling containers in and around the stadium.
Tailgaters near the Wellness Center most likely saw a row of large green Waste Management recycling bins resting in the parking lot, cordoned off from the main tailgating thoroughfare and filled with assorted pieces of cardboard, paper, plastic bottles and other donated refuse.
These strategically placed waste receptacles were all players in a different sort of game from what was happening on Wantland Field. For the second year in a row, UCO was a participant in the Game Day Challenge, a nationwide recycling awareness effort by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that falls under the EPA’s “WasteWise” program.
According to the EPA, the Game Day Challenge has three goals.
The challenge aims to “lower waste generated at college football games; increase participation by students, faculty, staff and the community in waste reduction programs; and heighten awareness of waste reduction programs.” Any college or university with a football team can participate.
UCO’s participation in the Game Day Challenge this year was coordinated by Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE), a student organization dedicated to making a positive difference in the community by rendering selfless service through current and future business leaders.
“Last year we won two of the national awards,” Ashland Boles, senior international business major and secretary of SIFE, said. “Our overall goal is just to get as many people as we can to recycle, and we want everybody to be aware on campus about different recycling places.”
UCO received the top awards for most greenhouse gas reduction and recycling in 2010. SIFE and Boles hope to win at least one more award through the EPA Game Day Challenge this year.
“Last year we did it. I don’t want to say it was last minute, but it was more like, ‘let’s try this out,’” Boles said. “This year we did it again and we (distributed flyers) more.”
She said that the group may target more local businesses next year.
Along with the EPA Game Day Challenge, SIFE also participates and organizes a number of local events.
“One of our projects that we started last year was we were working with Closer to Earth, and they are a nonprofit composting organization,” Boles said. “What they want to do is become more sustainable and not so much government funded. So what we’re trying to do is get them to a point where they are more sustainable by working with different businesses and breaking down their materials and getting paid for it.”
SIFE is also involved with “Cell Phones for Soldiers,” a nonprofit charity that gives donated cell phones to soldiers on tours overseas.