A football stadium may have green grass but does it have green habits? Each week, Great Lakes Echo highlights a Big Ten football stadium’s attempts to do the most to impact the environment the least.
All schools have information on the stadium’s diversion rate – the amount of waste recycled instead of put in a landfill.
Photo: Rutgers University.
Stadium: High Point Solutions Stadium
School: Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey*
Built: 1994
Capacity: 52,454
2012 diversion rate: 52.4 percent
Scouting Report: On Oct. 27, 2012, Rutgers achieved a 94.6 percent diversion rate during a game against Kent State University, the fourth highest rate recorded nationwide.
The school also implemented a single stream recycling program — where all recyclables can be placed into one bin and it is sorted later in the collection process — to increase user-friendliness. Recycling rates subsequently increased by 117 percent and Rutgers won the Big East Division of the Game Day Recycling Challenge.
*Maryland and Rutgers will officially join the Big Ten Conference starting in the 2014-15 academic year.