Recycling success at Super Bowl

Around 25 tonnes of aluminium beverage cans were collected at this year’s Super Bowl in the US.

A dedicated team spent the weeks after American football’s pinnacle fixture calculating the amount of materials recycled during the game in Indianapolis – with the total reaching more than 144 tonnes.

The Indiana Recycling Coalition (IRC), with financial support from Alcoa Foundation, helped organise an effort to recycle materials at the Super Bowl and its numerous related events. The IRC worked closely with the 2012 Super Bowl Environmental Programs Committee to ensure that there were adequate recycling locations for fans to recycle their beverage containers and other materials.

Carey Hamilton, the executive director of the IRC, said a total of 144.03 tonnes of recyclable materials were collected from Super Bowl-related venues between 23 January and 9 February, including Lucas Oil Stadium, the NFL Experience/Indiana Convention Centre, the Super Bowl Village, the ESPN facility, Banker’s Life Fieldhouse, and NFL Compounds.

This total included about 25 tonnes of aluminium from beverage containers.

The Alcoa Foundation helped make recycling available at several Super Bowl related venues outside of the Super Bowl Village.

Alcoa’s investment to the IRC was specifically focused on increasing awareness about the infinite recyclability of aluminium beverage cans, while also encouraging greater awareness about “away from home” recycling.

Paula Davis, president of Alcoa Foundation, said: “In the US, we have an enormous opportunity to improve our environmental footprint by recycling more of what we consume. When recycled, a can of soda is back on the shelf in just 60 days. We’ve set a strategic goal to increase US recycling rates of aluminium beverage cans to 75% by 2015. We are proud to support the Super Bowl recycling initiative and partner with the IRC to achieve that goal.”

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