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Xcel Energy Center
Containers Help St. Paul Arena and Convention Center
Improve Recycling and Composting
St. Paul, Minn., is in the forefront of a movement toward adapting more sustainable practices at large facilities like arenas and convention centers. In fact, it's exceeding ambitious goals of reducing trash by 50 percent and increasing its recycling rate to 50 percent in just two years.
The city's 18,064-seat Xcel Energy Center is home to the National Hockey League Minnesota Wild, and hosts numerous other games, concerts and special events, such as the 2008 Republican National Convention. The adjacent St. Paul RiverCentre offers more than 250,000 square feet of exhibition space. Together, these facilities draw millions of visitors each year – and they produce a lot of waste. But thanks to an ambitious recycling and composting program that uses innovative containers from CleanRiver Recycling Solutions, much less of the waste stream is hauled away as trash.
"Progress has been awesome," notes Christina Reeves, principal environmental specialist at Progressive Associates, Inc., a consulting firm hired two years ago to implement recycling and other sustainability programs. "The two facilities were at 15 percent recycling at their initial benchmark. The last 12 month average was 52 percent. Trash has been reduced by 1.43 million pounds or over 58 percent," Reeves adds.
Improving recycling performance depends on a variety of factors, such as public education and a well-designed infrastructure, including specialized recycling containers. On the Xcel Center suite level and throughout much of the convention center's public spaces, CleanRiver Recycling Solutions has supplied multi-stream recycling containers which are made of durable, attractive recycled plastic lumber. These units feature unique openings and clear graphics so that bottles and cans, paper, compost, and garbage go in the right place. These containers have front opening doors so they are more easily accessed for emptying and cleaning. Smaller bins for cans and bottles, also from CleanRiver, are used in the two facilities.
Among the country's major arena and convention facilities, the St. Paul facilities are in the forefront of public composting. Compared to collecting food waste in kitchens, composting in public spaces presents additional challenges. "Education is very important for successful front-of-the-house composting," Reeves says.
CleanRiver's custom graphics help educate the public and guide them through composting of food leftovers as well as compostable foodservice products like tableware and "to-go" food containers. "Pictures really help educate people so they're not confused about what is compostable. When they are confused, they often toss everything in the trash. The recycling containers have made a huge difference because instead of trash that is burned or landfilled, this material becomes compost," Reeves adds.
The results of the composting program have been impressive. From fall of 2009 to spring of 2011, the facilities collected 270 tons of compost. According to Reeves, much of the compostables are from kitchens, but a substantial portion was placed in bins by consumers.
Even as the recycling rate has soared past the initial goal of 50 percent and composting racks up impressive tonnage, Xcel Energy Center and St. Paul RiverCentre are looking to continually improve the program. According to Reeves, the effort includes new processes for catering staff and custodians, enhanced public education, and additional CleanRiver recycling containers with composting capability. "The bins have been an important part of the program. The fact that they are made of recycled materials is good, too," she adds.
Click here to see a video of the St. Paul River Centre and Xcel Center recycling program.
