As the Arkansas Razorback football team finishes its work on any given game day, another team takes over Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium, hauling away as much as 20 tons of waste.
James Brown, the building services manager in the University of Arkansas athletic department, is tasked with managing much of the department’s post-event cleanup efforts. For each game, he coordinates the removal of about one-third as much waste as is produced at the Super Bowl each year, according to Business Waste. Brown said that after fans exit the stadium, about 40 to 50 people begin the cleanup operation.
“Two hours after that football game, we go through the bathrooms, and they mainly focus on getting that stuff clean,” he said.
Cleanup efforts continue through the night. Brown said that starting at midnight after a game, a crew begins walking the surrounding area of the stadium and tailgating areas, sorting waste into garbage or recycling. This crew places any collected waste in spots where trash services can pick it up on Sunday morning.
Sunday’s crew increases to anywhere from 150 to 200 people, and efforts begin around 7:30 a.m., focusing on waste within the stadium itself. Workers continue efforts to separate recyclable materials from garbage.
“We use two different color bags,” Brown said. “We use blue for recycling and clear for trash. They separate that, and they stage it on the concourse.”
He said a separate group arrives at the stadium on Sunday afternoon and moves the sorted waste to dumpsters.
The effort that goes into keeping the stadium clean begins well before gameday, Brown said. Staffing preparations start to take shape about 45 days ahead of the Razorbacks’ first home football game. This process keeps the athletic department prepared throughout the season, ensuring adequate staffing and resources for every game.
Beyond staffing, Brown said a lot of the sustainability effort has to come from fans themselves.
“A lot of times your trash can bin will have a bigger hole in the top of the lid [than] your recyclables bin. They have the smaller holes for cans and bottles and stuff like that,” he said. “A lot of your fans will go, and it’s easier just to drop a bottle in the trash can than it is to put it in the recycle bin.”
He added that trash and recycling bins are always placed directly next to one another, meaning fans do not have to go out of their way to find a recycling bin.
While the clean-up team sorts through trash left on the ground, Brown said they do not re-sort what is disposed of by fans.
“We don’t have the manpower. We don’t have the time to do that, you know,” Brown said.
He said the end goal is to divert all recyclable material from the landfill, a goal that aligns with those set forth by the university’s Office for Sustainability.
The office’s website lists four campus sustainability goals: reaching 50% diversion from landfills, achieving carbon neutrality, having 60% of campus commuters use a form of alternative transportation (not driving alone), and lowering greenhouse gas emissions to levels measured in 1990 — a goal met in 2017 but viewed as a continuous effort.
Brown said game day clean-up efforts are largely contained within the athletic department, apart from partnerships with a few outside contractors, school districts and nonprofit organizations.
Brown said he thinks fans understand the amount of effort that goes into keeping the stadium spotless.