It’s a must-have for tailgaters this year and it has nothing to do with hot meatballs or cold beer.
Instead, the new item popping up at parking spots across campus is a bright blue plastic bag for recycling.
“(We) wanted to divert the waste going to landfills and increase our recycle count,” says Erin Hafner, program coordinator for Game Day Recycling. “It’s been a very positive thing for campus.”
Notre Dame first tested the recycling program last year with student volunteers passing out bags to tailgaters in two parking lots. They collected 3,400 pounds of recyclables over six games in 2007, organizers say.
This year, the group, run from the Office of Sustainability, is on an even bigger roll, their first home game bringing in seven times more items than in all of last year.