The Philadelphia Eagles is the latest professional sports team to enforce its commitment to sustainability with a new initiative: the team has entered into a nine-year recycling partnership with Braskem, a major producer of biopolymer and polypropylene. Braskem will naming rights to the Northeast Gate at Lincoln Financial Field.
The Eagles will work with Philadelphia-based Braskem to develop a closed-loop recycling program for plastic products. One element of the program – unique to this partnership, the organizations say – is the focus on recycling bottle caps. Braskem will collect bottle caps at the team’s home stadium, Lincoln Financial Field, and at the NovaCare Complex, the team’s practice facility. The collection and recycling process will be highlighted at an interactive fan zone located on Lincoln Financial Field’s HeadHouse Plaza.
“What started out with blue recycling bins under each employee’s desk in 2003 has turned into a company-wide sustainability program that is diverting more than 99% of waste from landfills and operating on 100% clean energy,” the sports team says, adding that in June, 2018, the Eagles became the first professional sports team to receive ISO20121 certification for integrating sustainability into management practices and processes.
Through the new partnership, Lincoln Financial Field’s Northeast Gate will be renamed the Braskem Gate.
Last year, the Philadelphia Eagles announced the installation of a food waste digester and data analytics platform at the field. The team installed a waste digester at its practice facility in September, 2016, and since then it has decomposed – and thus diverted from landfill – more than 9 tons of food waste.
The team partnered with Waste Masters Solutions, which is working with BioHiTech Global on developing, installing and deploying the digester and data analytics platform.
BioHiTech Global’s Eco-Safe Digesters can process up to 2,400 pounds of material per day, using a proprietary bacteria formula to break food scraps down via aerobic digestion and send them through sewer systems with no residual solids. The Eagles say this will help manage large spikes in waste volume during important games or concerts, according to Waste Dive.
Lincoln Financial Field opened in Philadelphia in 2003, replacing Veterans Stadium. Construction cost $520 million at the time and environmental considerations were there from the start. Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie and his wife Christina Weiss Lurie established the Go Green sustainability program in collaboration with the Natural Resources Defense Council in 2003.