Austin FC may be ranked 11th in the Western Conference, but in the stadium, they're leading the pack.
Q2 stadium has diverted 90% of waste generated during games in the last year, making it considered "zero waste."
Austin FC said the stadium is one of just five sports venues in the world and the only soccer-specific stadium to earn the TRUE certificate from the Green Business Certification Inc.
Nick Otte, senior director of stadium operations for Austin FC, said it wasn’t easy.
Over 20,000 people on average attend Austin FC home games, and they generate about 6 tons of waste per game. After each game, staff spend hours putting the trash, recycling and compost in the correct bins.
In August, the stadium got a miniature version of the machine waste-management companies use to sort through entire cities' worth of trash to speed up the sorting process.
The recycling, compost and landfill waste is then sorted a second time by Texas Disposal Systems.
Otte said he visited the Texas Disposal System’s facilities in the middle of the night multiple times to ensure the compost and recycling didn’t make its way to a landfill.
“[I] watched them dump it, watched them sort it, and made sure that we were feeling good about how all of that was working,” he said.
Otte said fans aren’t allowed to bring their own food or drink (unless it's in a reusable water bottle) into the stadium, and almost everything sold at home games is recyclable or compostable.
Rick Fraumann, vice president of sales and growth at Texas Disposal Systems, said unlike most compost sites, their facility can handle processed meat and grease.
“All your food — your leftover pretzel, your hamburger, your hot dog, your nachos, your cheese, all of that's compostable,” he said.
Otte said the plate it comes on and the fork you eat it with can be tossed into the compost bin, too.
“All any of us want is for our fans to be happy and feel like they're a part of something that they can be excited about," Otte said. "So if that's something that matters to them, it even allows us to double down on making sure it matters to us."
