Hannah Halterman
First-year student Kate Tyson hands a recycling bag to a tailgater before the Missouri vs. Alabama football game on Saturday, Oct. 11 in Columbia, Mo. Tyson and other Tiger Tailgate Recycling volunteers split up to cover several parking lots, offering a bag for recyclables to each tailgate they saw.
As University of Missouri and University of Alabama fans unpacked tents and coolers from their cars on Saturday, Oct. 11, a group of 25 students assembled outside the Student Center armed with rolls of blue recycling bags.
Tiger Tailgate Recycling, run through Sustain Mizzou, aims to reduce tailgate waste at home football games by encouraging tailgaters to take a recycling bag for their cans and bottles. Each student volunteer starts with a roll of 25 plastic bags to distribute.
Since its inception in 2005, TTR has partnered with Mizzou Athletics every home game to give 25 volunteers one football ticket each in exchange for their help in promoting proper sustainability in athletics. Volunteers do not have to be members of Sustain Mizzou to participate.
Sophomore Tessa Herring, the TTR program lead, explained that the program has always been popular with students, and this year is no exception.
“People have been very interested in it, I think mostly because if you volunteer with us, we give you a free ticket to the game,” Herring said. “But I think people are very interested in athletic sustainability … TTR is very important because it educates that sustainability is important in every aspect of life, especially athletics.”
As the program lead, Herring has instituted a few changes since taking over TTR this year.
“What’s been really rewarding is trying to add more things to the program that make it more effective,” Herring said. “It’s more of a social event this year, so I try to get all of the participants talking and meeting friends … Also, [we are] more proactive about educating not only the volunteers that we have, but the tailgaters.”
The Alabama game was the first time that first-year student Micky Sheridan volunteered with TTR.
“I’ve been looking for some volunteer opportunities for a little bit,” Sheridan said. “I saw TTR, thought it was a pretty good idea, and we get to go see the game … It was a pretty good thing to help out the community, and I’m also into sustainability.”
Daniel Anaya, on the other hand, is a regular at TTR; the Alabama game marked his fourth time volunteering with them. As a first-year PhD student, he joined the program because it was a rewarding way to help around campus on the weekends.
“It’s very nice to give the bags [out],” Anaya said. “Then when you’re coming back from your route, you see all the bags being actually used and people recycling.”
Edited by Maggie LeBeau | [email protected]
Copy edited by Savannah Church and Avery Copeland | [email protected]
Edited by Chase Pray | [email protected]