Athletics joins Lucky and Foodmax for "Red, Black and Green" recycling project
- January 8, 2010
Don't toss your plastic water bottle in trash bins on campus. Instead bring them to home basketball, water polo, baseball and softball games.
The Cal Sate East Bay Pioneers have partnered with Lucky and Foodmaxx supermarkets in Hayward on the "Red, Black and Green" Pioneers Recycle Program in a show of support for the university and broader community.
Colleges and universities are small communities that consume large amounts of resources and generate much recyclable waste, athletics officials point out. Cal State East Bay is dedicated to reducing waste reduction on its campuses. Recycling is a key element in Cal State East Bay's campus-wide sustainability efforts.
The Cal State East Bay Athletics Department will promote recycling at all of its home sporting events. At each home game for the 2010 season, fans are encouraged to bring recyclable plastic bottles and bags. In return they will receive a reusable water bottle or reusable grocery bag courtesy of Pioneer Athletics, Lucky and Foodmax grocery stores.
"Recycling negates the resources needed to create new products from scratch," Trey Granger of Earth 911 said in a Pioneer Green News article. "And it keeps materials, for example, plastic, out of landfills that take a long time to decompose."
"Recycling is crucial because landfills fill up quickly, and each of us produces over four pounds of waste per day," he added. "Much of this is recyclable, so why not recycle and make sure we don't have to create more waste disposal solutions?"
Community engagement is part of the mission of Cal State East Bay Athletics and a major focus of NCAA Division II. The "Red, Black and Green" Program allows student-athletes, coaches and administrators to support the goals of the university and participate in community engagement as part of Pioneer Athletics' transition into NCAA Division II.
"Our community outreach efforts at Cal State East Bay have three prongs: environment, health and literacy," Director of Athletics Debby De Angelis said. "This project does a great job of meeting the environmental prong and helping us to work with the entire campus community as we try to create a more sustainable existence."
The "Red, Black and Green" Pioneers Recycle Program will begin Jan. 28, when the Pioneer basketball teams host Cal State San Bernardino in a CCAA doubleheader. The women's game starts at 5 p.m and the men's game tips off at 7 p.m. at Pioneer Gym.