KOLD 13 News: 92% Super Bowl LVII waste diverted from landfills

Dani Birzer, KOLD 13 News

PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) - More than 92% of all waste gathered from Super Bowl LVII events was able to be diverted away from landfills, City of Phoenix Public Works Department officials said on Monday.

The final diversion rate of city-collected trash from all Super Bowl events held in downtown Phoenix was 92.6%, achieving the city’s zero-waste goal. Lorizelda Stoeller, Deputy Public Works Director and Chair of the Super Bowl Steering Committee Green Initiatives group, said, “This took a lot of planning ahead of time to educate the public on separating trash from recyclables. It also took a lot of hard work from staff, volunteers, and contractors who helped sort through collected garbage to ensure we weren’t landfilling any plastics or other materials that could instead be recycled.”

Around 81 tons of material was able to be recycled from the events, thanks to 51 volunteers serving as Zero Waste Ambassadors with Downtown Phoenix, Inc., Keep Phoenix Beautiful, and Volunteer PHX. In 2015, the city was only able to divert 80% of all waste from the event to the landfill. “We couldn’t have reached our goal without the new machinery that separates food packaging from food waste,” said Deputy Public Works Director Eduardo Rodriguez. “Because of it, we were able to keep all that organic material out of the landfill. Soon it will become clean compost that will help beautify parks and other areas across the city.”

Mayor Kate Gallego said that she believes this has set the bar high for all future Super Bowls held in any city in the U.S. “Reaching Zero Waste for an event of this size is an incredible win that demonstrates our City’s commitment to sustainability and environmental stewardship,” she said.

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