Super Bowl LII was the first “zero waste” Super Bowl

Hat tip to the folks from The Viking Age for finding this one before we did.

For the first time in NFL history, the league has put on what can actually be called a “zero waste” affair. That means that, according to the story from Cision, 91% of the waste that was generated by the 67,612 fans that attended the contest was “responsibly recovered through composting, recycling, and reuse.”

The results are in following the big game: nearly 63 tons of the 69 tons of gameday waste were recovered through recycling or donation for reuse (62 percent) and composting (29 percent). Recovering waste through composting and recycling reduces waste disposal costs and provides several environmental benefits including reduction of landfill use and reduction of the greenhouse gas generated by the landfill process, gasses which contribute significantly to global warming.

The Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority, in cooperation with several partners (including the NFL and PepsiCo) made this happen, and Super Bowl LII will now serve as the benchmark for all of the games to come as far as keeping things clean and green.

There are plenty of interesting tidbits about how the team behind Super Bowl LII made this happen at the story linked above, but it’s still pretty nice that the Vikings (or, more accurately, their stadium) are setting the standard as far as keeping things environmentally friendly.