Michigan State University recycling crews are preparing for one of their busiest weekends of the year as thousands of Spartan fans head to campus for Saturday's Homecoming game.
The university has already recovered about 71,000 bottles and cans from inside Spartan Stadium during its first two home football games this season.
Chris Hewitt, an operations coordinator at the MSU Recycling Center, says the work begins well before kickoff.
A 10-person crew starts preparing four hours before the game, monitoring tailgating areas and getting the stadium ready. About 85 recycling bins are located throughout the stadium's upper decks and main concourse.
Alcohol sales inside Spartan Stadium have made collecting empty containers even more important. MSU pays the deposit on each beer sold, and recovering those containers allows the university to reclaim that money.
“Much like everyone returning the bottles and cans here in Michigan, we want to, on behalf of the university, reclaim that deposit,” Hewitt said.
Hewitt says crews typically collect more than 2,000 pounds of bottles and cans after each game.
Once the cleanup is finished, the collected material is taken to the campus recycling facility. There, student workers spend two to three hours sorting containers on a conveyor belt.
The football cleanup is just one part of a much larger operation. Hewitt says the recycling center makes about 50,000 collection stops across campus each year, handling roughly 25 million to 27 million pounds of material.
“Our job and our motto is to manage waste as a resource,” he said.
For fans attending Saturday's Homecoming game, Hewitt encourages them to look for designated recycling bins throughout Spartan Stadium and campus.