As the college football season heats up, a different kind of competition is wrapping up at football stadiums across the United States. Colleges and universities were competing this fall to see who could reduce the most amount of waste at a home football game. The Environmental Protection Agency sponsored the “Game Day Challenge” and just announced the winners this week. 77 schools participated in the challenge and managed to collectively divert a total of 500,000 pounds of waste from landfills. The EPA says that prevented the release of nearly 940 metric tons of carbon dioxide which is the equivalent of the greenhouse gases produced by more than 170 cars. Schools who took part in the challenge tracked the amount of waste that was recycled, reused, composted, donated and disposed of during one home football game. The EPA announced that the recycling champion this year is the University of Central Oklahoma. The waste minimization award went to Ithaca College and University of Tennessee at Martin. The diversion rate champion was the University of California, Davis and the organics reduction award went to Marist College. You can read more details about the challenge results by clicking here. The competition is sponsored by the EPA’s Water Wise program which helps organizations cut down on costly waste which benefits their bottom line and the environment. The program was launched in 1994 and includes 2,400 members.