Stadium clean up after the game = a big job

If this Friday night's home football game at Decorah High School is typical of the games earlier this season, happy fans will exit the stadium, leaving behind good memories, triumphant players and coaches--and at least eleven 45-gallon bags full of garbage, with assorted litter under the bleachers and around the perimeter of the field.
 
Custodians in the past picked up the left behind trash on Mondays following the games, but wind often over the weekend often scattered the garbage.  In addition, animals ransacked the garbage cans, making cleanup more difficult.
 
So for the past several years, Art and Science Club members along with
advisers Elizabeth Lorentzen and Larry Berland have met after the game to pick up litter in and around the stadium and reduce the amount of garbage headed for the landfill. Armed with plastic gloves and strong constitutions, they separate recyclable plastic, aluminum, cardboard, and paper from non-recyclables and garbage. Carl Iversen and Nina Borseth who have been part of the Art and Science Clubs' recycling crew agree it's a "trashy" experience, but it's fun to work with the group and make order out of chaos. Custodians appreciate the help as well because the high school construction project has given them added responsibilities and more demands on their time.
 
This year the football team noted Art and Science Club at work after one of the home games at Viking Stadium and began to help by picking up litter around the field and in the bleachers as part of their exercise routine during Saturday morning practice. Football coaches are Bill Post, Joel
Rollinger, Pat Davis, Jesse Halweg, Pat Trewin, and Jeff Freidhof. As a
result of the players' help, a job that often took Art and Science Clubs
from three to four hours to complete has been reduced to around an hour and a half.
 
After the recent homecoming game, 303 recyclable plastic containers, 390 refundable plastic bottles and cans, two full 45-gallon sacks of paper, several pounds of aluminum, 26 cardboard pizza boxes and 11 assorted cardboard boxes were retrieved from the garbage and taken to the recycling facility, leaving just three full 45-gallon sacks of garbage of the eleven
sacks of garbage originally collected.
 
After the experience, Jacob Garza, one of the football players, observed,
"It was pretty messy." Teammates Eric Smorstad and McKinleigh McCabe agreed that it was surprising how much trash was left by the spectators, especially right by the trash cans. Dustin Smith, another teammate, observed, "It was nice the football players could give back since the community came to support us at the game."
 
Viking fans can also assist in the cleanup effort after each game by placing recyclables in the designated containers by the stadium and concession stand and dropping garbage into the containers provided rather than discarding it in the bleachers and around the perimeter of the stadium.