Sporting events prompt extensive cleanup
Cleanup crews at Razorback sporting events collect trash and help environment
Miles Bryant
Issue date: 11/12/08 Section: News
During the fall, it has become a tradition for Razorback fans to lounge outside of the stadium underneath tents before and after home football games. They fill their bellies with food, catch up with friends and family, and talk about the good and bad times of Razorback football. And when they go, the mighty Razorback tailgaters also leave trash cans around the stadium overflowing with dripping plastic cups, plates speckled with chips and dip, and buzzing flies feasting on leftovers.
And when fall fades away and winter bundles the campus up, well-rounded Razorback fans will take their "sooie spirit" from Reynolds Razorback Stadium to Bud Walton Arena to cheer on John Pelphrey and the Razorback basketball team, again leaving all their trash behind.
Football and basketball are well-established traditions at the UA, and university officials take responsibility to sustain these traditions with proper waste management. The football cleanup crew arrives 7 a.m. Sundays after home games with anywhere from 80 to 100 people.
There are three things the cleanup crew does on these smelly Sunday mornings: take the liquids and dump them in a bucket, pick out all the recyclables (only if they are not contaminated, which is when they have food on or in them), and bag the trash and sweep the stands. For basketball games, a spot mop is tacked on to the procedure. The cleanup lasts until about 2:30 p.m.
This cleanup procedure is one Joe Swingle, director of facilities, knows well, and although things may look messy at Razorback Stadium, Swingle says fans do a better job keeping the stadium clean than it might appear.
"They do a pretty good job, as many of them pitch in during a football game," he said.
Ally Timmermans, a sophomore biochemistry major, said she thinks UA fans are lucky to have Razorback Stadium and should strive to take care of it.
"I think we have a really pretty stadium," said Timmermans, a frequent tailgater who enjoys watching football games with her friends and family. "It's important to keep it that way."
And when fall fades away and winter bundles the campus up, well-rounded Razorback fans will take their "sooie spirit" from Reynolds Razorback Stadium to Bud Walton Arena to cheer on John Pelphrey and the Razorback basketball team, again leaving all their trash behind.
Football and basketball are well-established traditions at the UA, and university officials take responsibility to sustain these traditions with proper waste management. The football cleanup crew arrives 7 a.m. Sundays after home games with anywhere from 80 to 100 people.
There are three things the cleanup crew does on these smelly Sunday mornings: take the liquids and dump them in a bucket, pick out all the recyclables (only if they are not contaminated, which is when they have food on or in them), and bag the trash and sweep the stands. For basketball games, a spot mop is tacked on to the procedure. The cleanup lasts until about 2:30 p.m.
This cleanup procedure is one Joe Swingle, director of facilities, knows well, and although things may look messy at Razorback Stadium, Swingle says fans do a better job keeping the stadium clean than it might appear.
"They do a pretty good job, as many of them pitch in during a football game," he said.
Ally Timmermans, a sophomore biochemistry major, said she thinks UA fans are lucky to have Razorback Stadium and should strive to take care of it.
"I think we have a really pretty stadium," said Timmermans, a frequent tailgater who enjoys watching football games with her friends and family. "It's important to keep it that way."
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