Green Games typically recruits 15 to 20 student volunteers per athletic event. The volunteers are divided into three groups based on the different waste streams at UVA athletic events, which include landfill, recycling and compost.
“If we see an aluminum water bottle in a landfill bin, we’ll go ahead and pull that out and put it into a recycling bin to make sure it ends up getting recycled,” Lela Garner of the University’s Office for Sustainability said. “Similarly, if we see a compostable product, like a popcorn bag, in the recycling bin, we will place it in the composting bin.”
Garner is the sustainability specialist for student engagement in the Office for Sustainability. For the past five years, she has been coordinating programs and initiatives for students to advance the University’s goals for sustainability.
When the game ends, the student volunteers leave their posts at the trash bins and start picking up the trash left in the stands.
“It’s a very tedious process,” Briscombe said. “We take bags and go to all the seats throughout the stadium and pick up trash, compost and recycling. We try to collect as much as we possibly can, but we have a limited amount of manpower and time.”