As Big Ten universities consider the environmental impact of their newly expanded conference, the University of Michigan is making positive changes for the environment close to home. “The Big House,” home to Wolverine football and the largest football stadium in the country, is on the path to Zero Waste.
The Zero Waste project at the stadium began all the way back in 2016, but it was given new life in the wake of what Michigan recognized as, “the expanded carbon footprint that traveling creates.”
Alison Richardson, sustainability program manager for U-M’s Office of Campus Sustainability, told Concentrate, “A small amount of landfill waste is produced by concession stands, but Richardson says that the stadium has switched to more sustainable products in all fan-facing areas and the recycling or composting rate is about 75%.”
For the 2024 season, U-M added additional signage to The Big House, making it easier for fans to understand which bins their used cups, plates and leftover food belonged in. Staff was also posted near waste stations to assist anyone who had questions about how to dispose of their waste.
Richardson explained that half the compostable materials are processed at Ann Arbor’s composting site. The other half is composted right on the U-M’s campus.
And The Big House is going beyond the concession stand to reach its Zero Waste goals. The athletic department is also reducing the use of disposable pom-poms and student souvenirs.
Samuel McMullen, the co-founder of Zero Waste, told Concentrate that he included The Big House on a sustainability tour. He said, “Once you start paying attention, you're going to realize that at the stadium, wow, of course that's 100,000 people's worth of trash."
Next for U-M, McMullen hopes that the university focuses on the ‘reusing’ portion of the well known “reduce, reuse, recycle” mantra. So far, the Wolverines have achieved the 75% mark by focusing on recycling. To put The Big House over the edge, they’ll need to start looking to products they can reuse.
McMullen said, “It's a huge challenge but also a huge opportunity for reuse. We've seen some stadiums trying out reuse projects, like buying beer in a reusable cup that can be dropped in a bin. That nixes hundreds of thousands of disposable cups in one fell swoop."
