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Atlanta Hawks and State Farm Arena unveil waste diversion figures
State Farm Arena and the NBA basketball league’s Atlanta Hawks have announced the successful diversion of more than 2,503,745 pounds (1.1 million kilograms) of waste from landfill sites through its 2022 schedule of basketball games, concerts and events.
As part of this total, State Farm Arena recycled nearly one million pounds of materials including aluminium, cardboard, plastics and glass.
In April last year, the Atlanta arena also became the first sports and entertainment venue to become TRUE (Total Resource Use and Efficiency) Platinum certified for zero waste from Green Business Certification. This means that the recipient has diverted more than 90% of all waste from landfills and continuing to operate in a sustainable manner.
“For us, it has always been about consistency and intent behind the decisions that enable us to operate zero waste, and we are always looking for ways to continue innovating."
The rest of the total included 734,775 pounds of food and organic material being composted while 610,656 pounds of materials like food, electronics, clothing, crates, pallets and more were donated or reused.
Atlanta Hawks and State Farm Arena also worked to reduce annual waste by 160,054 pounds by eliminating paper tickets, individual condiment packets, disposable service ware and more.
Sofi Armenakian, Hawks and State Farm Arena Head of Sustainability, said: “We are so grateful for our fans, concertgoers and partners who have helped us continue setting a new standard in the sports and live entertainment industry and beyond.
“For us, it has always been about consistency and intent behind the decisions that enable us to operate zero waste, and we are always looking for ways to continue innovating. As we all strive to be part of the solution, we know that together, we can continue diverting more waste from landfills, and we continue to ask fans to join us outside the walls of our venue on this forever journey to operate more sustainably in their daily lives.”
Image: Warren LeMay/ CC0/ Edited for size
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