U.Va. Sustainability held the fifth annual Gameday Challenge during the Virginia-North Carolina football game Saturday, part of an effort to reduce the amount of waste produced at the game.
Fourth-year Commerce student Lauren Nguyen leads the Recycling Team for the University Office of Sustainability, which organized the event.
The Gameday Challenge, Nguyen said, is a nationwide competition between 89 schools, including the University, to see who can reduce the most waste from a single football game.
“It’s all volunteer-based and takes a lot of coordination,” Nguyen said. “There were over 100 student volunteers this year, and there were four different shifts.”
Student volunteers divided into shifts to collect recyclables from tailgating sites, people entering Scott Stadium, concession stands and presidential suites, and from trash left at the end of the game.
“There are definitely a lot of ways that football games generate waste,” Nguyen said.
Since the participating schools in the Gameday Challenge can choose the football game to complete the challenge, results won’t be known until the end of football season in December. Last year, the University won four of the five divisions of the Challenge set up by the Atlantic Coast Conference.
“We actually won the Gameday Challenge in 2010, so we have a good history, and I think considering how Saturday went, we should do well again,” Nguyen said.
Last year’s volunteers collected 3,000 pounds of waste.
“As time goes and as we get better at it, there’s less of a need for this many volunteers,” Nguyen said. “I think we’re definitely moving in the right direction.”
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