Overview
- The University of Michigan kicks off its 2025 football season on Saturday, August 30, when the Wolverines host New Mexico at Michigan Stadium, but another competition is taking place in the stands--a race to keep as much waste from going to the landfill as possible. In the 2024 football season, the University of Michigan’s Zero Waste Stadium Program achieved diversion rates that typically ranged between 70 and 80% per home game. Since the program launched, more than 500 tons of stadium waste have been diverted, making Michigan Stadium—college football’s largest venue with a capacity of 107,601 fans—one of the most ambitious large-scale waste diversion projects in athletics (mgoblue.com, d4njeax0ev936.cloudfront.net).
- On Game Day, fans encounter two-bin stations—blue for recycling and green for compost—and nearly all food service items are either recyclable or compostable. After each game, a team of about 400 volunteers arrives at 6 a.m. Sunday to hand-sort waste from the stadium into its correct streams. Recyclables are transported to the Western Washtenaw Recycling Authority, while compostables are taken to the City of Ann Arbor compost facility. Beginning in 2023, some compost has also been delivered to the U-M Campus Farm, where it is used to enrich soils for student-grown produce that supplies the university dining halls (record.umich.edu).
- From 2017 through 2024, the stadium has diverted more than 500 tons of material, with current games typically reaching the 70–80 percent range. Measured results illustrate the program’s trajectory. In its inaugural 2017 season, Michigan diverted an average of 88.17 percent, or 55.24 tons of waste, including 26.71 tons recycled and 28.52 tons composted. In 2018, the diversion rate improved to 89.03 percent, with three games exceeding 90%, and a season high of 90.91% during the game against Maryland (wasteadvantagemag.com, mgoblue.com).
- The environmental benefits are tangible. Composting prevents methane emissions—a greenhouse gas more than 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide—by diverting organic waste from landfills. Recycling conserves natural resources and reduces the energy required to produce new materials. Food donations help minimize waste while serving community needs.
- Michigan’s efforts are also part of a national friendly competition. Each fall, universities participate in the GameDay Football Zero Waste Touchdown Challenge, part of the nationwide Campus Race to Zero Waste program. Schools submit data from a home football game to compete for the highest diversion rate. Ohio State University, for example, has been a consistent leader, recording diversion rates above 95% and even achieving a 98.2 percent diversion at Ohio Stadium in 2012. Michigan’s progress is tallied alongside these national peers, building both benchmarking and bragging rights into the program (epa.gov, campusracetozerowaste.org). On campus, U-M also runs an internal edition of the Campus Race to Zero Waste, where campus buildings compete against each other for the highest diversion rates.
- According to Alison Richardson, sustainability program manager at U-M’s Office of Campus Sustainability, the project began as part of President Mark Schlissel’s 2016 sustainability initiative; since then, staff have switched to more sustainable products at concessions, added clearer bin signage, reduced disposable giveaways such as pom-poms, and posted interns and volunteers near waste stations to assist fans in sorting correctly (Concentrate Media).
- A 2024 study by graduate students at U-M’s Center for Sustainable Systems found that the Big Ten Conference’s expansion more than doubled football-related travel emissions: Michigan’s team travel emissions increased by 2.3 times compared with 2010–2023, while emissions from visiting opponents traveling to Ann Arbor increased by 2.6 times, underscoring that while the stadium is a success in waste diversion, expanded conference travel has introduced new environmental challenges (Concentrate Media).
- The Zero Waste Stadium Program also ties directly into U-M’s broader Planet Blue goals, which include cutting landfill-bound waste 40% below 2006 levels by 2025.
Transcription
David Fair: The football season is underway, and there's nothing quite like a Saturday at the Big House! The stadium officially seats over 107,000 people, but it's had crowds in excess of 115,000. As you might imagine, a gathering that size is going to produce a lot of trash. Well, what happens to all of that garbage? I'm David Fair, and welcome to this week's edition of Issues of the Environment. Our guest today is Alison Richardson, and she is senior project manager of the U of M Football Zero Waste program. And she's here to talk about one of the most ambitious, large-scale waste diversion projects in all of athletics. Thank you so much for making time. Alison! I appreciate it!
Alison Richardson: Of course! I'm happy to be here!
David Fair: Well, we can all picture the hot dog wrappers, the popcorn boxes, and the paper and plastic cups we get from concession stands. What kind of other waste is generated on game days at Michigan Stadium?
Alison Richardson: Yeah. So, at our Zero Waste program at Michigan Stadium, we have strived, when we launched the program, to make sure that all materials sold at the concessions are either recyclable or compostable. So, that means all of the food, of course, and then all of food packaging is compostable, and we make sure that all of that beverage containers are recyclables. And we've done our best to kind of limit what is available to fans at the stadium, so that you really only have to make those two choices, and there's not landfill materials generated at the stadium that fans are going to see.
David Fair: Do you find that some of the fans that are coming in bring some things that perhaps were not available at the stadium and leave them behind?
Alison Richardson: Oh, of course, yes. So, there's definitely, despite our best efforts to have a controlled waste environment, there are materials that come into the stadium that aren't compliant with the program, but that's part of what our crew is there to do is to make sure that that material doesn't end up in the compost or doesn't up in recycling, so that we still have quality material to recycle and compost at the end.
David Fair: It's hard to imagine how much trash is generated. Is there a way to put in concrete terms how much is produced on any given Saturday at the Big House?
Alison Richardson: Yeah. So, every season in every game, we produce a tremendous amount of waste. In the 2024 season, that was 65 tons of recycling, 22 tons of compost.
David Fair: Oh my!
Alison Richardson: Yeah. And then, four tons of food was actually donated to Food Gatherers over the course of the season here in Ann Arbor. So, it is quite a large quantity, and all that waste combined allowed us to divert 75% of the waste generated at the stadium from the landfill last season.
David Fair: This is Issues of the Environment on 89.1 WEMU, and we're talking with Senior Project Manager of the Football Zero Waste program at the University of Michigan, Alison Richardson. And much like the football team itself, Alison, I assume there is pregame preparation that the Zero Waste team has to make. How do you get ready for a game day?
Alison Richardson: It takes a lot of effort. The program is kind of an ongoing collective effort by all of the players involved, making sure to educate everyone involved in the waste process. So, this ranges from, like I mentioned, making all of the materials sold are either recyclable or compostable, and then all the way to just educating the fans on what can go in the bins, where to throw their waste when they're standing in front of the bin making that decision. So, when we launched the program, we added new signage, new messaging, all of our bins are labeled around the concourse. You'll see signage and messaging kind of letting you know exactly where to place your materials that you're holding in your hands that you've gotten at the concession. Also, at every game, we have a team of student zero waste educators that are working to make sure we're diverting as much waste as possible from the landfills. So, this group works to make sure that--all of the groups volunteering at the stadium--are up to speed on what it takes to have a zero-waste stadium and then kind of just making sure that everything is set up to have optimal waste diversion throughout the game.
David Fair: I love how much thought and preparation goes into the game before it takes place and then during the game as well. This Saturday, the Wolverines will host Central Michigan at noon. The game should be over by 3:30 or 4:00. The stadium should be empty or close to it by 4:30. But it's really on Sundays that that huge volunteer team comes in and knocks out most of the clean-up work, and most of us never get a peek at that process. What do Sunday mornings at Michigan Stadium look like?
Alison Richardson: Sunday mornings at Michigan Stadium are a flurry of activity. Like I said, the game is over on Saturday, and there's some cleanup then. But then, the real work happens on Sunday morning where a group of volunteers comes in. I believe it's several hundred that come in, along with our U of M Waste Management Services crew and athletic staff, and they work to clean up all of the waste and diligently separate all of the materials by compostable, recyclable and landfill and make sure they all go to the proper waste stream. And it's quite an impressive effort! It goes from what you can imagine the stadium looks like after a game. Within a few hours, it's back to being spotless and ready for the next game to happen.
David Fair: I'd love to see a timelapse video of that, because it really is amazing how much can be collected and how different the stadium looks from start to finish. As we talk about the cleanup and zero waste, it's part of a larger program at the University of Michigan and its sustainability goals. So, how does this play into the bigger picture?
Alison Richardson: Yeah. So, the Zero Waste Stadium program efforts, they directly support our campus waste reduction goals, namely to increase our diversion rate on campus and also to increase our awareness of waste reduction efforts. It also contributes to U of M's commitment to creating a culture of sustainability, so composting and recycling at the stadium, it's really tangible, it gives fans a direct opportunity to learn about and participate in waste reduction, it introduces the concept to a really wide and diverse audience that may not be familiar with it. The program also ties into our campus carbon neutrality commitments. The climate impact of waste maybe is not the first thing that comes to mind for many people. They might think of just like the visible impact of all of the waste at the stadium, but the climate impacts can be pretty significant. The composting we do captures and stores carbon. Recycling from the stadium has a much lower emissions impact than landfilling, and then landfiling releases methane. So, just an example of this impact just from the stadium, the composting and recycling at home games alone last season helped us prevent the release of 34 tons of carbon emissions. So, it's pretty significant!
David Fair: That is indeed significant! Our conversation with Alison Richardson continues on 89.1 WEMU's Issues of the Environment. Alison is sustainability program manager at the University of Michigan's Office of Campus Sustainability and Senior Project Manager of the Michigan Football Zero Waste Program. In talking about those larger campus goals, the Planet Blue sustainability goal had been set to cut waste by 40% from 2006 levels by the end of this year. If we put this all together in the efforts you're talking about, is that goal achievable?
Alison Richardson: Well, so that goal was set in 2011, and, as you mentioned, it's sunsetting this year. So, all of our efforts on campus have contributed towards that goal. And what we've done over the past year is establish a series of new goals that give a much more comprehensive picture of our waste efforts on-campus. So, that goal was just looking at landfill reduction. But, like I mentioned, our new goals are going to look at our diversion rate, increasing awareness, reducing overall waste on campus. So, those are kind of our new targets that we're going to be striving for with all of our waste programming going forward.
David Fair: You know, you mentioned carbon emission. It occurs to me that the football team and the athletics department has much more travel to do these days. When the Big Ten expanded to include four teams from the West Coast, I imagine that had an impact on all 18 of the schools in the conference. So, does it become more difficult to kind of lower those carbon emission rates?
Alison Richardson: I do think that presents an additional challenge with the expansion of the conference, because, like you said, there is more travel. The U of M Center for Sustainable Systems has done a lot of interesting research around that recently. So, if anyone is interested in kind of the details on what that would involve, I would encourage you to take a look at their recent research that they've done, and it's really interesting.
David Fair: Michigan is clearly a leader in stadium waste diversion efforts and can be modeled by other schools around the country. Is the U of M best in the conference or the country?
Alison Richardson: Well, we like to think so....just kidding! I think, collectively, all of the schools are always striving to do our best because we know that all of these stadiums have a big impact. And we're also always sharing best practices. It's a really great collaboration amongst all of those schools who have similar challenges, similar stadiums, all working towards similar goals. So, we actually kind of exchange ideas quite a bit to see how we can all improve our programs based on what everyone is learning from waste practices at stadiums.
David Fair: Is it a realistic goal, Allison, to get to true zero waste at some point down the line?
Alison Richardson: Well we're always striving toward it. The industry's standard definition for zero waste is 90%. We're consistently at 75% at the stadium. So, that's not 90%, but I think that's pretty impressive, given the size and complexity of the crowd and the venue.
David Fair: Indeed!
Alison Richardson: So, it's always a work in progress, and we're always driving towards that 90. I think we can always improve, and that's why we're always reaching for that 90%.
David Fair: Well, thank you for taking time and talking some trash with me today, Alison! I really appreciate it!
Alison Richardson: Oh, of course! It's my pleasure!
David Fair: That is Alison Richardson. She is Sustainability Program Manager at the University of Michigan's Office of Campus Sustainability and Senior Project Manager of the Michigan Football Zero Waste program. She's been our guest on Issues of the Environment. For more information and links to everywhere you want to go, stop by our website at WEMU.org. Issues of the Environment is produced in partnership with the office of the Washtenaw County Water Resources Commissioner, and you hear it every Wednesday. I'm David Fair, and this is your community NPR station, 89.1 WEMU-FM Ypsilanti.
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