PRC: Steelers Fans Champions When It Comes To Recycling Too!

Pittsburgh has another winning effort to celebrate this month: football fans diverted nearly 8 tons of recyclables from landfills by gathering aluminum, glass, plastic and cardboard containers at recent Steelers tailgate parties, according to the Pennsylvania Resources Council.
Since campaign kickoff on December 12, the “Let’s Tackle Recycling” crew gathered approximately 16,000 pounds of recyclables in Heinz Field parking lots during the final three regular season home games and two playoff games.
The recyclables included: 173,000 aluminum cans, 9,000 glass bottles, 64,000 plastic bottles and cups and 1,600 pounds of cardboard.
“The response to the ‘Let’s Tackle Recycling’ challenge, funded by the Alcoa Foundation, has been phenomenal,” according to Dave Mazza, Regional Director of the Pennsylvania Resources Council, which served as the campaign’s organizer.
“This was truly a team effort, and it owes its success to the thousands of fans who took the time to recycle," said Mazza. "The Pennsylvania Resources Council sincerely thanks its campaign partners: Alco Parking, City of Pittsburgh Environmental Services, Greenstar, Pittsburgh Steelers and the Sports & Exhibition Authority for supporting the effort in a variety of ways.”
At the five games, Alco Parking attendants distributed blue recycling bags to fans as they entered six designated parking lots along General Robinson Street. Tailgaters were encouraged to place all bottles, cans and plastic containers in the bags during their pre-game parties.
Let’s Tackle Recycling team members circulated throughout the lots to provide additional recycling bags, help collect filled bags and generally encourage fans to recycle.
“We’re already in the planning stages for a return to the Heinz Field parking lots next fall,” said Mazza. “Tailgaters should look for the blue recycling bags again when the Black and Gold kick off the 2011 season.”