Baseball Stadium Hits Home Run for Recycling & Composting

by Christopher Williams & Steven Sherman

SBC Park – home of the San Francisco Giants major league baseball team – seats 42,000 fans. Last season, more than 3 million people attended the games. One feature that sets SBC Park apart from most stadiums is its commitment to comprehensive recycling, water and energy conservation, and growing use of biodegradable, recycled content and lower toxicity products.

Giants’ staff recover materials like paper, cardboard, grass clippings and food scraps. The organic residuals – about 12 cubic yards per game – are collected and composted by Norcal Waste Systems. Applied Composting Consulting, under contract with San Francisco’s Department of Environment, provides technical expertise and employee training.

By the end of last season, the Giants reached a 56% diversion rate. The team’s goal is to limit purchases to only those items that are compostable or recyclable to further reduce solid waste.

The current goal of the Giants organization is to reduce garbage compactor “pulls” (collection events) to one per game day. Before materials recycling began in February 2002, there were three compactor loads pulled per game. In 2003, one compactor was eliminated and the remaining one was pulled twice per game, completely full each time. With increased recycling, the volume of garbage has been reduced to two partial loads per game, 60% full – almost eliminating the need for the second pull.

Linerless cartloads of food scraps are taken down to the loading dock by Giants maintenance staff, where they are dumped into organics dumpsters for collection by Golden Gate Disposal and Recycling. The carts are then rinsed and returned to service. There are virtually no contaminants in the food scraps due to the hands-on training provided by Applied Composting Consulting, the diligence of the wait staff and maintenance porters, and the careful inspection of most loads by staff at the loading dock.

At the end of each game, unserved, wrapped edible foods are donated to food rescue agencies such as Food Runners and Compadres, and food scraps suitable for composting are returned to the fourth floor kitchens to be separated and handled appropriately.

The recovery program has garnered impressive statistics. For 2004, SBC recycled over 1760 tons of materials and achieved a 56% diversion rate, while saving about $100,000 in garbage disposal costs.

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FROM Biocycle: Journal of Composting & Organics Recycling