Collegiate Times

The SGA said its Green Effect game against Nebraska on Sept. 19 proved to be the first successful interactive recycling event at a football game.

Green Effect has also built a foundation for the Home Game Recycling Program, which is being implemented at every home football game from this time forth.

The program consists of volunteers who walk around in parking lots and collect tailgaters' cans and bottles to recycle. There were 150 volunteers at the Green Effect game and 1.78 tons of refuse were recycled. This was a 70 percent increase in recycling from the Marshall game.

"Overall, it was a great success," said Alex Funk, SGA director of sustainability. "We had a great volunteer turnout, and we've gotten a lot of great feedback from tailgaters. A lot of them were very receptive to us trying to change the recycling culture on campus."

Although there was a Green Effect game last year, it did not generate the same results because of timing and a lack of organization. This year's game was the first official Green Effect game and it had significantly more people involved.

"This was the first game that we did a large program like this. It was a great exercise and we learned a lot. We learned also how to make it better," said Denny Cochrane, Virginia Tech's sustainability program manager.

The Green Effect game served as the kick-off for the Home Game Recycling Program, which is now standard at every home football game.

The issues in logistics that were encountered at the Green Effect game are being altered and improved for the next home game, which will be against Boston College on Oct. 10.

One of the main issues the volunteers had was the lack of collection locations for the recyclables. The YMCA Lancaster House on Washington Street was the only collection point for the game. At the Boston College game there will be various satellite collection points scattered amongst different parking lots.

Another issue the volunteers ran into was the fact that they started collecting recyclables too early during game day.

"We started about two hours too early we figured," said Nathan Latka, SGA director of green initiatives. "Next time we're planning on starting two hours later so we can catch peak tailgating times, or the times when most people are tailgating, so volunteers aren't just standing in open parking lots."

Over 1,200 trash bags were handed out to volunteers. The volunteer to parking lot ratio was one volunteer per every 12 parking spaces.

For each home game from now on, there will be about 50-60 volunteers per game. For the Boston College game, there are already 30 volunteers signed up, despite the fact that it is over fall break. The volunteers, tailgaters, and general public who attended the Green Effect game seemed to respond positively.

"Students really picked up on it, it had a huge impact on a lot of people," Cochrane said. "To me it's cool seeing our students doing something they're excited about and having our faculty excited about it also."

After the game, a Nebraska fan that was tailgating wrote Cochrane a note thanking him for the efforts and wished them all well.

The SGA is also working on future green endeavors, including a Green Effect Basketball game and Big Event Green Edition.

"Our focus is to keep progressing and editing the Home Game Recycling Program but we're always looking for student input on changing sustainability and green initiatives on our campus," says Latka. "Things are going up on the green front."