Although this Cubbies fan isn't fond of the New York Yankees, I spent an enjoyable May afternoon at a ball game in the new Bronx stadium. I was pleased to see that the stadium management team is making an earnest effort to be environmentally progressive. The stadium's food containers are bio-degradable, and separate waste bins for trash, plastic and compost are stationed throughout the ballpark. These bins are labelled clearly and usually positioned next to one another.
Unfortunately, your average baseball fan doesn't know what "compost" is. I snapped the below picture of a Yankees fan throwing balled-up napkins into a "compost" receptacle, and witnessed similar mistakes all afternoon. Depressingly, the "plastic" bins fared little better.
Perhaps Yankee Stadium management needs to station waste educators near the bins? The ticket prices are surely high enough to cover the cost!
Photo credits: Yankees waste bins image, ripped from SeriousSeats.com; fan abusing compost picture, Hungry Hyaena
7 comments:
I'm skeptical of biodegradable plastics. Obviously, they don't really degrade once smooshed into a landfill. Paper doesn't even degrade in there. Anyway, I bought some lavender for my herb garden and it came in a "100% biodegradable" pot. I'm going to compost the thing and see for myself. I'll keep you posted.
Andiscandis:
Yeah, biodegradable plastics do seem a bit dubious. Perhaps we can just hope for those products to break down into problem-sized plastic flotsam more quickly?
Still, it's a step in the right direction if for no other reason than it draws attention to waste issues.
Let me know what becomes of your pot.
Everything is "biodegradable"... nothing man-made lasts forever.
Not necessarily in an appreciable time frame, though.
They should get "Spudforks". My brother works for Bloomberg LLP, and they recently ditched the old plastic cutlery in favor of these. They're made from 80% potato starch and 20% soy oil, and apparently they biodegrade after 180 days! The slight downside: Everything you eat with them tastes like potato. But hey, most Yankees fans like fries...
Les:
The Spudfork solution sounds fantastic.
Speaking of fries, I had the Old Bay Fries at the new Shea Stadium last week. Tasty!
Yeah, sounds good. Though when I think of dining in Queens I don't wanna think of "Old Bay".
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