UT football games get a bit greener

AUSTIN (KXAN) - Bring 100,000 football fans together for a game at Darrell K. Royal Memorial Stadium and they'll generate a ton of noise. And, they'll generate two tons of food scraps.

That's why Keep Austin Beautiful started a recycling program at The University of Texas home games in 2008. Now, they organization has expanded their efforts to stop waste.

“Recycling isn’t enough,” Monica Lopez Magee of Keep Austin Beautiful said. “We want to expand to include composting both in our day-to-day lives, and in the stadium where so much waste is produced.”

This season, you can find 16 clearly-marked compost bins near the stadium food court, as well as more than 20 volunteers distributing bags in tailgating areas.

“I think fans are catching on because the amount of composting we’re collecting is increasing,” Magee said.

All of the leftover food scraps from the stadium end up at the Organics "By Gosh " composting site in east Austin. When the trucks arrive—bringing as much as to 4,000 pounds of food scraps after each home game—the composting process begins.

Within hours, Organics “By Gosh” workers mix the scraps with ground-up brush. They also apply water to the mixture to feed the biological processes. Before long, the five-foot high pile comes to life, reaching an internal temperature of up to 160 degrees Fahrenheit, even in cold winter months.  After nine to 12 months, the product is ready for resale.

“The end goal is to get product back on our soil,” Organics “By Gosh” owner Phil Gosh said.

The final product is not only environmentally friendly, but can also save people money.

“Most people save on their water bill just what they spend on the compost the first year,” Gosh said. “And then they’ll have 10 years of great benefit and a healthy yard that’s drought-resistant.”

Next time you throw away the rest of your cheeseburger, be mindful of where it goes.

“You have everything you need from your fingertip to your elbow,” Gosh said. “It’s just what bag you put it in.”