Published: August 30, 2008 12:00 am            

Recyclers get their game face on

The blue shirts stuck out in the sea of red at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium.

But these young people weren't fans of University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Instead, their shirts tagged them as the game day recycling crew.

The group of about a dozen University of Oklahoma students pointed out the new recycling bins in the stadium and encouraged guests to dispose of their water bottles and cans in the blue bins.

"That's the way we can help the environment," said Carolina Camacho, a chemical engineering student from Colombia who volunteered to help at the stadium Saturday. She passed out fliers before the game and then roamed around the stadium during the game reminding people to use the recycle bins.

Most of the recycling was collected during the first half of the game. A storm rolled in during the second quarter, causing many fans to flee the stadium during the extended half time because of torrential rains.

There will, however, be more opportunities for Sooner fans to recycle at upcoming football games. The bins will become a stadium staple and volunteers will be at every home game this season to encourage visitors to recycle plastic and aluminum.

The initiative comes from the OU Athletic Department, spearheaded by Tabitha Brown, said Bryce Hulsey, recycling coordinator for the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality.

Hulsey has been working with the Athletic Department to make recycling an option at the stadium this season.

"I think it'd be beneficial not only to the game but also promote Norman's recycling efforts, too," he said.

The target inside the stadium is plastic water bottles.

"There are millions of bottles -- water bottles are the problem," Hulsey said.

Because plastic is made out of petroleum, recycling those bottles is a small-scale way to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil, he said.

Inside the stadium Saturday, the bins sat next to trash cans that sometimes contained just as many bottles.

The recycling bins also were available just outside the stadium entrances for use as guests presented their tickets and filed into the stadium. Those bins were recepticles for not only empty water bottles but also beer cans.

Emma York, an OU freshman, volunteered to help raise awareness about recycling at the game Saturday. She said she found out about the opportunity through Our Earth, an environmental activism student group.

She said focusing recycling efforts at OU football games is a great idea.

"Just because college students are wasteful, just like a lot of other people," she said. "So if we can get it started now, then later in life it'll continue."

Just north of the stadium on Campus Corner, another recycling effort launched Saturday.

Boy Scout Troop 242 collected aluminum cans during the evening -- before it started raining -- to raise money for campouts and other projects.

The City of Norman provided four green canopies for the scouts to sit under and collect cans, said Roger Franklin, assistant scoutmaster.

Boy Scout Chris Laidacker, 17, said the effort was a success.

"We got a bunch of cans," he said. In addition to the canopy stands, the scouts picked up cans on the ground in the area. Laidacker said a lot of people at Campus Corner before the game told him the effort was a great idea. It helped the troop raise money as well as benefitting the environment, he said.

Boy Scouts will be on Campus Corner every home game day collecting cans.

Julianna Parker 366-3541 jparker@normantranscript.com

        

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