City of Phoenix surpasses waste diversion goal during College Football Championship
Feb 1, 2016, 6:00 AM | Updated: Feb 2, 2016, 11:28 am
(City of Phoenix Photo)
(City of Phoenix Photo)
PHOENIX — The numbers are in, and the city of Phoenix exceeded its recycling and composting goals during the College Football Championship.
The city achieved 81.9 percent waste diversion during the three days of festivities downtown between Jan. 8-10. The goal had been 75 percent waste diversion.
“We want to put Phoenix on the map as a city that can host great events, but we want to do it in a way that reflects our values,” said Phoenix City Councilwoman Kate Gallego. “We’ve embraced sustainable event planning.”
During the festivities, Phoenix Public Works allowed fans to separate solid waste into three different bins: Recyclables, compostables and trash. Environmental specialists assisted those who attended by helping them sort their waste.
Gallego said the amount of waste diversion during the College Football Championship exceeded that of Super Bowl festivities from a year ago.
“Last year, we had a 73 percent waste diversion rate, which was also very impressive,” Gallego said. “We didn’t want to settle with our past success and so we decided to see if we could do better this year.”
Phoenix has set a citywide waste diversion goal of 40 percent by 2020. Gallego said the compost from the College Football Championship will be used on city landscape and community garden projects.
