There will be a hum of electricity as the players make their way down the Walk of Champions. There will be a roar of Rebel fans cheering with one another as the ‘Hotty Toddy’ chant resonates throughout campus. It’s game day at Ole Miss.
Thousands enjoy game day in the Grove, but there is one side that is not so pleasant: trash.
Nathan Lazinsky, assistant superintendent of the UM landscape services, said there are tons of trash and it takes a full staff to clean it all up.
“The average amount of waste collected during game days is about 70 tons and (90 tons for big games),” Lazinsky said. “We set up about 2,500 red and blue barrels, 400 recycling stands and 400 blue drums for trash. We also have about 18 to 31 20-yard dumpsters set up to collect the trash.”
According to UM Landscape Services, in 2012 alone the department removed a total of 489 tons of waste from the Grove. The University of Central Arkansas game produced 42 tons and the Texas A&M game produced 87 tons.
“We use our full staff for the setup on Friday mornings, which consists of 28 full-time employees, our contract employees that consists of six employees and our student workers, which consists of about eight to 10 people,” Lazinsky said.
Game day setup involves many people working hard from 6 to 9 a.m. Cleaning up afterwards, however, is another job entirely.
“The cleanup starts Saturday night,” Lazinsky said. “We have 10 full-time employees and volunteer groups consisting of about 100 people come in. Sunday morning we have 20 full-time employees and a volunteer group of about 40. The volunteer groups consist of student organizations such as Baptist Student Union and ROTC.”
Generally, the staff and volunteers begin cleanup about seven hours after kick-off, working anywhere from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m until the job is finished. But after all of the trash has been collected, where does it go?
“The trash that is collected goes into the local landfill,” Lazinsky said. “We also collect the recyclable materials that go to the sorting station in Oxford. Landscape services collects it and (the) Office of Sustainability sorts it at the sorting station in Oxford.”
Though recycling is a possible solution to the Grove trash problem, Ann Fisher-Wirth, director of the environmental studies minor, thinks people can do better.
“It is a question of mindfulness, of how we live on the earth,” Fisher-Wirth said. “Just as we wouldn’t leave garbage on the floors of our living rooms, there is no excuse for leaving trash lying around the Grove. Also, it’s important to make changes in our habits of consumption; for instance, find biodegradable options instead of using styrofoam, minimize the use of plastic, recycle, but also minimize the amount of what needs to be recycled.”
Trash is not the only problem Groving causes.
“Protecting the trees and shrubs from damage is also an issue on game days,” Lazinsky said.
Lazinsky said there can be several landscaping challenges including soil compaction. The maintenance crew has to aerate the soil by poking small holes in the ground to let oxygen and moisture into the soil every year.
“When 100,000 people are in a 10-acre spot, the soil particles become smashed, creating an environment where water cannot penetrate the soil and roots have a hard time growing deep; there is also no oxygen for the roots,” Lazinsky said.
Lazinsky said the trash grows every year with the increased enrollment.
Senior Taylor St. Laurent said it is important to value the campus and make an effort to preserve it.
“Ole Miss is considered the holy grail of tailgating,” St. Laurent said. “It’s important to keep our campus and the Grove as nice as we can. We’re pretty lucky to have such a beautiful campus and I think every Rebel should work to keep it that way.”
