By weight, 90.5% of all items that entered Catawba's football stadium left as properly sorted recycling or compost. The 90% threshold is a difficult bar to achieve, higher than all but one institution, The Ohio State University, reported in waste diversion efforts last year to the Campus Race to Zero Waste.
GameDay Football Zero Waste Touchdown Challenge is a program facilitated by Campus Race to Zero Waste, which promotes reducing and recycling waste at home football games. The competition is judged based on three criteria including: diversion, the amount of recycling and food organics diverted from the landfill, the generation of recycling per capita, and the generation of food organics per capita. In 2024, Catawba ranked 6th overall for Stadium diversion, 11th in recycling per capita, 2nd for waste minimization, and 8th in food organics.
A group of Catawba College students in the Environmental Stewards program led the charge in organizing and executing Zero Waste Gamedays. Their work starts long before gameday. Stewards are responsible for designing waste bin signage and layout in a way that makes it easy and visually appealing for attendees to sort their own waste. For gamedays, they oversee recruiting and organizing volunteers, who they work with to sort waste into landfill, compost, and recycling pathways every gameday. They are on the job from the beginning of tailgating through the end of the game once all the waste is sorted and stowed. Seen under their light green “Good Goes Far” tent, they are quick to welcome curious onlookers and fervent football fans.
Environmental Steward Jennie Conner '27 believes that community sustainability programming, recognition from alumni and tailgaters, and persistence has led to this success. "This result is a reflection of the community’s attitude — we are getting a positive response, which is reflected by our positive increase in diversion from landfills," she said.
At Tailgate America, the largest Catawba College tailgating event, all provided utensils, plates, napkins, and cups are BPI compostable to minimize landfill waste thanks to a donation from the Catawba College Center for the Environment. Tailgating organizers Bill Hall and Bob Setzer have been great supporters of the effort, along with other Chief’s Club members.
Catawba College Football will return to the sidelines of Shuford Stadium on October 25th, 2025, for homecoming. There are sure to be Environmental Stewards ready to sort, cheer, and support the Catawba Indian football fans in attendance, aiming to continue to hit the 90% “Zero Waste” threshold. They aim to bring a Race to Zero Waste championship back to Salisbury.
The Environmental Stewards Program is a sustainability leadership development program for exceptional students of all majors at Catawba College. The program is supervised by Sustainability Program Directors Hannah Addair and Noah Upchurch from the Catawba College Center for the Environment.
