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Spokane Indians Making Progress in Zero Waste Campaign

Spokane Indians

The Spokane Indians (Short Season A; Northwest League) are reporting progress in their Zero Waste by 2022 Campaign, as the team is stepping up several initiatives at Avista Stadium.

Earlier this month, the Indians announced a commitment to be a zero waste facility by 2022. To bolster this effort, the team installed 60 Zero Waste Stations with three streams–compost, recycling, and landfill–around the ballpark this year, while instituting the Spokane Indians Green Team to sort through bins and ensure that items have been properly separated. In addition, the organization is investing in items such as compostable beer and soda cups (including lids and straws) and utensils.

There is still plenty of work to be done in order to reach the campaign’s goal, but Indians officials believe that the measures taken around Avista Stadium this season have yielded significant progress. More from the Spokesman-Review:

All this is part of the Indians’ “Zero Waste By 2022 Campaign,” a goal that senior vice president Otto Klein said the team is well on its way to achieving.

“This year we’ll be at 60 to 70%, which is up from about 15% last year,” Klein said last week, referring to the percentage of all products that end up either composted or recycled at the stadium. “In one year, we’re making big strides.”

The program, which Klein said is among the first of its kind in minor league baseball, follows the lead of a handful of Major League Baseball teams, including the Seattle Mariners. The idea is to reduce waste to 10% or less of all products disposed of at the facility.

Toward that end, Avista Stadium has 60 “Zero Waste Stations” in and around the stadium, with separate bags for compost, recycling and landfill. Above each bag is a picture of what belongs in each, featuring various products from stadium concessions.

Several initiatives are being planned for the future, including an on-site vegetable garden to help expand a closed loop system that allows food and other items to be reused rather than sent to the landfill. Vegetables from the garden would be used in specialty ballpark food items.

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