The PGA Tour and golf as a sport are known for their lush, beautiful and of course, green courses. Fans travel across the world to watch some of the best golfers play on these courses which constantly require a lot of maintenance, attention and the expenditure of resources to sustain their pristine appearance to the general public. However, it is one tournament in particular we will focus the spotlight on. No it isn’t one of the four major tournaments on the schedule, however, it possesses major environmental achievement in not only golf, but all of sport.

The tournament we are referring to is the Waste Management Phoenix Open because it is currently the largest zero-waste event in the world[i]. The term Zero-Waste simply means that all the garbage, consumer waste, recycling or anything you can think of that stems from the tournament is never sent to a landfill. The reason this such an astonishing achievement is because the Waste Management Phoenix Open has massive crowds. For example, in 2015 there were over 560,000 fans who attended the tournament[ii]. To host an excess of 500,00 individuals at a single sporting event who are creating pounds and pounds of waste yet, have none of it needed to be sent to a landfill is a truly amazing achievement. As stated by the PGA, through implementing a zero-waste tournament in 2015, the 2015 edition of the tournament avoided releasing 346 Metric Tons of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere[iii].

The tournament organizers were able to achieve this outstanding achievement by eliminating all trash containers and replacing them with over 6,000 recycling and compost receptacles[iv]. The tournament places an emphasis on the fans to recycle right by eliminating the option of the trash bin. This allows fans to determine where their form of waste should be directed ensuring the recycling and compost process is completed as efficiently as possible. It is through this collaboration between tournament organizers and fans of the sport, that the Waste Management Phoenix Open has become of the PGA Tour’s most popular tournaments with the event winning the PGA Tour’s “Best Title Sponsor Integration” award in 2011, 2013 and 2015[v].

The collaboration shown by the tournament organizers and active participation by the fans are a perfect example of how sporting events should be organized in the future. The idea of sustainability in sports requires active participation from both fans and organizers. When you hit the sweet spot of both groups being committed to the idea of sustainability, you end up with milestones like the zero-waste Waste Management Phoenix Open. Hopefully, like-minded leaders will step forward and invest the same level of effort into encouraging collaboration between corporations and consumers to facilitate the growth of zero-waste sporting events in the future.

For those interested in reading more about the achievements of this tournament, please visit http://www.pgatour.com/news/2016/02/02/waste-management.html.

Yours Truly,

The Green Gatsby

[i] http://www.pgatour.com/news/2016/02/02/waste-management.html

[ii] http://www.pgatour.com/news/2016/02/02/waste-management.html

[iii] http://www.pgatour.com/news/2016/02/02/waste-management.html

[iv] http://www.pgatour.com/news/2016/02/02/waste-management.html

[v] http://www.pgatour.com/news/2016/02/02/waste-management.html