Winnipeg Sports Centres In Need Of An Enviro-Makeover
What do you get when you combine thousands of screaming sports fans and a non-existent recycling policy?
That’s right – a big stinking heap of landfill waste.
Apologies for the negative tone in this post. I generally prefer to focus on the positive ‘green’ things that are happening in the world, but every now and again I think a little ‘bad press’ can be helpful as well.
I came across a Winnipeg Free Press article this morning that certainly surprised me – it discussed the less-than-exemplary waste management policies currently in place at two of Winnipeg’s major sporting/entertainment facilities, Canad Inns Stadium and the MTS Centre.
I guess I was (naively) under the impression that any large Canadian facility would at least have a standard recycling policy these days – but apparently this is not in fact the case.
Here is an exerpt:
CANAD Inns Stadium is ready for the Cup, but has no plans for the bottle.
Winnipeg’s football stadium does not recycle plastic pop and water bottles, plastic beer cups or any other materials sold at concessions, operations manager Graham Hunter said Wednesday.That means on Grey Cup Sunday, all eyes in Canada will be fixed on what may be the only Canadian Football League facility that does not have a recycling program.
“It’s just not something we’ve gotten around to yet,” said Hunter, an employee of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, which assumed ownership of Canad Inns Stadium from the City of Winnipeg in 2004.
Canad Inns Stadium returns beer bottles and cans to its alcohol distributors, but does not collect other empty containers. At least five of the seven other Canadian Football League facilities have more aggressive recycling programs.
In Edmonton, Commonwealth Stadium recovers not just plastic bottles, but paper, cardboard and cooking oil. In Montreal, Molson Stadium recycles hotdog wrappers.
In Regina, Mosaic Stadium recovers plastic beer cups. And in Calgary, McMahon Stadium actually hires people to pick through garbage to remove erroneously discarded recyclables.
As I mentioned above, Canad Inns is not the only offender – the MTS hockey and entertainment centre throws out much of its recyclable waste, even though they employ blue boxes onsite!
According to their senior vice president, people are throwing too much non-recyclable waste into the containers, thus making proper separation and recycling cost-prohibitive. He is quoted in the article as saying “We’re hoping as people become more compliant, it will be easier for us to pull the trigger and roll out our (full) recycling plan.”
Hmmmmmm…:roll:
In my humble opinion, in order for people to “become more compliant” they first need to be properly educated. Simply placing some blue boxes in the building and waiting for the public to smarten up definitely doesn’t sound like a great policy to me.
Anyway, this post is definitely not meant to be an angry rant. I just find it disappointing to see such large-scale irresponsibility when environmentally-friendly solutions could be implemented without too much difficulty.
I at least found it heartwarming to learn that the Free Press story came about as a result of a phone call from a disgruntled 16 year old – Lauren Halowaty, who works (hopefully still does!) for the catering company contracted for concession stand sales at both facilities.
Here were her thoughts on the matter: “Whenever we can recycle, we should” & “In places this big, it should be (compulsory).”
I couldn’t agree more, and certainly commend Lauren for her eco-heroism!
Technorati Tags: recycling, winnipeg, Canad Inns Stadium, MTS Centre, grey cup, CFL, blue box, Blue Bombers
Written by Bentley on November 16th, 2006 with
3 comments.
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Lauren Halowaty
Unfortunately I don’t work at the MTS Centre anymore, because I was given some grief for just trying to recycle! However, apparently they’re trying to do something there now, because I brought this whole topic about! So you have to start somewhere! 
Bentley
#1. December 6th, 2006, at 3:58 AM.
They could also give the heaps of recycled material to a Materials Recovery Facility in order to reuse for things like ski jackets, cushions and mattresses. You can read more in the following article:
[url=http://www.aboutmyplanet.com/environment/wearing-used-pop-bottles#more-211]Wearing Used Pop Bottles[/url]