Fall in the tiny town of Oxford, brings more than just a gentle breeze and great football celebrations at the University of Mississippi. It brings 90,000 fans and the un-recycled items they leave behind.
The Grove, an 18-acre stretch of tree-covered grass in the middle of campus and a few minutes walk from the football stadium is home to the best tailgating in the country. However, the lack of recycling by visitors to The Grove has been a problem in recent years. Attempts to encourage recycling both the university and student organizations have had mixed results.
In early 2009, the university established a Green Grove Initiative Fund, naming this year’s program “Crunch Time!’ Students and other fans were asked to deposit their recyclable items in bins placed in The Grove, the Circle and outside the stadium. As an added convenience, volunteers would walk through The Grove two hours before kickoff and collect recycled items placed in bags in and around the party tents. All the collected items were then transported to a local recycling facility in Oxford.
To better understand the success of the recycling programs, a recent focus group of faculty and students discussed a variety of issues, ranging from awareness of various programs to their personal opinion on the effectiveness of each.
Student Doug Hollowell a “Crunch Time” program participant said the biggest problem was in the stadium. “All of the recyclable items were either contaminated or wrong, and we weren’t able to use any of them,” Hollowell said. He said the university should put more money towards going green.
Another student, Matt Archer, agreed. “It would be a good investment. It’s the next thing we have to do.” Archer said the university is hesitant to make the financial investment needed. “Get behind us, and I can show you how increasing recycling on game day will save the university $40,000 a year,” he said.
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