UC Berkeley participated in the 2018 Pac-12 Zero Waste Bowl & GameDay Challenge, where universities from the Pac-12 Conference competed to divert the most waste from landfill at a selected football game. The competition is scored based not only on diversion rate but also on fan engagement, innovative promotional tactics and partnerships with businesses and different campus departments.
The Cal v University of Washington homecoming football game on October 27, 2018 was selected for the Pac-12 Zero Waste Bowl. Members of Epsilon Eta, UC Berkeley's professional environmental service organization, and Cal student athletes volunteered to trash talk with fans, sharing tips on how to correctly sort and reduce waste. Cal Zero Waste hosted an arts and crafts workshop in the Blue and Gold Zone, where attendees and children could come to do several reuse themed activities, including reusing gameday cups to plant California poppies in, and repurposing gameday shirts to make tote bags. Cal Zero Waste also worked Cal Dining to provide compostable products for all club level concession stands. The challenge was made possible through many partnerships and efforts to promote zero waste practices. UC Berkeley’s participation in the Zero Waste Bowl further aligns campus partners with the UC Zero Waste by 2020 goal.
