Ralphie’s Green Stampede works to turn football game days in Boulder into zero-waste events, helping the CU campus inch closer to its goal of a 90 percent diversion rate by 2020.
Every game day, volunteers and staff from Ralphie’s Green Stampede meet two hours before kick-off at Folsom Field to prepare for the waste management of the day’s event.
“We have about 40 zero-waste stations throughout the stadium, with two bins each — a compostable and a recyclable, no trash,” says Anissha Raju, the volunteer coordinator for the initiative.
“I assign volunteers to each station and give a brief training session on what is compostable or recyclable and what is not,” Raju said. “Afterwards, it is our volunteers’ job to educate the fans, making sure they defend each bin from being wrongly contaminated.”
All bags are plant-based and compostable, and all public food and beverage services also use compostable and recyclable serving materials.
“Our vendors at the stadium have a contract with us so that all their plastic-wear is compostable,” Raju said. “So everything — cups, plates, straws — [is] compostable.”
Since 2009, the Green Stampede has diverted 280,016 pounds of waste from landfills. Last season alone they diverted 52,877 pounds of waste, with an average diversion rate of 82.5 percent.
“We try to reach 90 percent diversion every game,” Raju said. “For our last three games, we have had an average of 80 to 90 percent.”
To learn more about the Green Stampede initiative, go to CU’s athletics website.
Contact CU Independent Staff Writer Jenna Smith at jenna.smith@colorado.edu
