The NC State program, Carter-Finley Composts, is promoting environmental sustainability during sporting events with compost stations inside of Carter-Finley Stadium as well as recycling in the tailgate lots after football games.
Carter-Finley Composts under the Zero Waste Wolfpack initiative is encouraging the NC State Community to be aware of the waste created at sporting events and promoting students to take action by getting involved in athletics and sustainability. Zero Waste Wolfpack has two subsections, Carter-Finley Composts as well as WE Recycle.
Kaley Cross, a third-year studying environmental science and Zero Waste Wolfpack intern, explained how the goal of Carter-Finley Composts is to divert landfill waste at sporting events.
Zero Waste Wolfpack has also started to expand past just football games and has committed to being at every men’s and women’s soccer game.
“This year, we’ve actually committed to being at every men’s and women’s soccer games, [and] we’re doing all of the football games, so we have composting stations at all of those events [where] volunteers can help us by signing up,” Cross said.
The WE Recycle section gives $200 to student organizations who volunteer in groups of 15 or more during Carter-Finley Composts sporting events as well as a free ticket to the football game they volunteer for.
“If you do the WE Recycle program, you actually get a free ticket to that football game, so that’s another incentive that tries to promote to students who may not have access to getting a football ticket or community members who want a football ticket, especially for bigger-name games,” Cross said.
Mary Alvarez, a fourth-year student in sustainable materials and technology with two minors in environmental science and renewable energy, and lead intern of Carter-Finley Composts, gave detail as to where the composted materials go.
“[The compost goes to] an offsite location,” Alvarez said. “It’s about forty minutes out, but that will be changing, so that’s one really exciting thing that is happening. NC State broke ground recently, I think if I remember right, it was a couple months ago on a new compost facility at Yates Mill, if I remember right. In the next couple of years, we will probably be doing composting in-house instead of sending it off to an industrial composter.”
In the future, Alvarez hopes to increase Carter-Finley Compost’s rates of waste production at sporting events while simultaneously growing and bringing awareness to their cause.
“Personally, my goal is to see our [composting rates] go up this year,” Alvarez said. “Last year, we [gathered] 28,000 pounds of compost. The compost program did super well last year, so that was incredibly exciting, hopefully this season we see similar stats. We see them increasing [in] waste reduction, [and] hopefully our program keeps growing and people know more about what we are [here] for.”
Students who are interested in Carter-Finley Composts can visit their website.
