The Minnesota Twins organization is looking to further clean up its act by introducing composite-based products at Target field. They have entered into a three-year partnership with Eco-Products, a food service packaging company based out of Boulder, Colorado. The Twins are the second Major League Baseball organization to partner with Eco-Products. As Kristin Leigh Painter of the Star Tribune reports, Target Field is looking to become the greenest ball park in America.
Turning trash into fertile soil is much more useful than dumping it into a landfill. Eco-Products offers a cleaner alternative to plastic and paper by providing compostable products such as straws, cups, trays, plates, spoons, knives and forks to the Twins organization for consumer use. Fans are already used to separating bottles and cans, but the Twins organization still had some concerns about fans adapting to this new environmental step.
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“We had had a number of discussions on the topic for a number of years,” said Laura Day, executive vice president of business development for the Twins. “We were a bit concerned because most initiatives of this magnitude are really an effort of changing consumer behaviors.”
Workers still have to sort through the trash to be sure no non-compostable items are mixed in with the compostable items. So far, results of fans adapting to the switch have been positive.
“The streams have been very clean,” said Day. “Based on that, I think our fans are indeed adapting.”
Nature Works, a Minnetonka, Minnesota based company, manufactures a resin-based product called Ingeo by fermenting sugars. Once the fermented sugars are liquefied, it is formed into pellets and sold to various manufacturers to create many types of consumer products. Some of these products, such as those created by Eco-Products, are compostable.
Aside from bottles, fans won’t have to separate their trash anymore either. Both the food waste and containers can be thrown into the same trash bin. The food waste actually helps the breakdown process of the container, so there is no need to dump the food first. In fact, Wendell Simonson, Vice President of Marketing at Eco-Products says the more food waste, the better.
“Then it’s easier for the fan because everything except bottles and cans go in the same bin,” and the fans don’t have to clean the product, said Simonson.
Stadiums are one of the largest venues that create trash which is why many of them are going green. The Minnesota Twins have received the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification. LEED is a green building certification program awarded for the best building strategies and practices that save money and resources, promote renewable clean energy, and have a positive impact on the health of occupants and the surrounding community.