The New York Yankees (try to) Recycle

Our family had the good fortune (through a prize won at an auction fundraiser) to spend the day (and some of the night) with the New York Yankees today. It was worth every penny spent for an experience we'll never forget. Most notably, we got to meet Derek Jeter and he signed two baseballs for us (one for each of our children).

I learned that Derek Jeter is very, very tall.

I also learned that the New York Yankees are trying their best to get the fans to recycle everything thrown away at the games. They even want to compost the food scraps! Before the game started, there was a public service announcement on the jumbo-tron featuring all of the Yankees talking about the new recycling cans that are all over the stadium, and encouraging the fans to deposit their items in the proper receptacles. The teammates shared a lot of impressive facts about how many forests would be saved thanks to more recycled paper products, how many gallons of oil wouldn't need to be consumed for transporting the garbage to landfills, how much cleaner the air and water would be with less pollution from the factories...you get the gist. I was pleasantly surprised to see this announcement (as I somehow hadn't noticed any of the new cans on our way inside), so I headed out to the refreshments area to take a look at this grand recycling plan in action.

The guys were right: The cans were all out there, waiting for the right trash to fill them up. The problem was that the wrong trash was in each and every can that I checked. Plastic cups, wrappers, and straws were in the food composting can. Food and cardboard trays were in the "Plastic Only" can. And all sorts of recyclables were in the "Trash Only" can. So, even though the Yankees and their stadium are taking huge steps in the right direction, the fans are severely hindering their environmental efforts.

I had thought that if you throw food waste into a recycling bin (or mix other things that don't belong together), it ruins the whole load and the recycling company has to dump the whole thing. However, after checking out the company that runs the recycling program for Yankee Stadium, Action Environmental Services (www.ActionCarting.com), I found that they "remove any recyclable material from the waste stream prior to being disposed." Their website is comprehensive and worth a look for any environmentalist. For a facility that handles tons upon tons of garbage, they run a remarkably clean operation. I also appreciated, under the heading of "Core Values," that they listed "Integrity" and defined it as: "We do the right thing even when no one is looking." (I remember a scathing news report from many years ago, involving a major city's recycling efforts--it turned out that everything was being clandestinely dumped at the landfill.) All in all, I was suitably impressed with this particular recycling company and I'm glad the Yankees chose them for the massive job of handling the refuse at the stadium.

My hope is that Yankee Stadium and Action Environmental Services quickly find that they would benefit from running the PSA at least one or two more times during the game instead of only once, pre-game. Midway through the game and at the end would be ideal for reaching the most fans and educating them about the program. Also, the cans are not always grouped together inside the stadium, so (from what I saw) anybody passing by a single can just throws out whatever he or she is carrying, either not realizing the error or not caring enough to walk another twenty feet to the appropriate receptacle. Clear signage around the cans might also help (I'm picturing a "STOP!" sign to get attention). In addition, I didn't see any place to put all of the cardboard trays. Out of the bins marked for "Food", "Plastic", or "Trash", I guess they would prefer us to throw out the cardboard trays in the ones marked for "Trash"? (I found cardboard trays in all three bins, so there is definitely room for clarification in this area.)

In any case, as I've learned from working on environmental initiatives at our children's school, these programs take time to work themselves out, and I have faith in the Yankees and their recycling company to get the job done right.

Speaking of getting the job done right, the Yankees won tonight against the Oakland A's, 10-9, in 14 innings.