Recycling hits the big leagues
Major League Baseball teams up to recycle

Collaborating with the Natural Resources Defense Council and Sims Metal Management, Major League Baseball (MLB) recently sent more than a hundred Green Team volunteers through Central Park. The volunteers collected approximately 150,000 plastic bottles and aluminum cans for recycling at the MLB All-Star Concert presented by Bank of America, starring Bon Jovi, in Central Park. In addition to the Green Teams, Aquafina provided bottle recycling bins and staff to encourage fans to be green.

Major League Baseball has been collaborating for more than two years with the Natural Resources Defense Council on the greening of professional baseball at both the League level and in collaboration with individual teams.

“MLB broke new ground tonight and set the standard for how to manage recycling at a major event,” said Allen Hershkowitz, senior scientist at NRDC. “Wherever you went, there was a conveniently located, well-marked recycling bin laid out by Sims Metal Management or Aquafina. When fans were at their spot on the great lawn, hundreds of friendly and easily identifiable volunteers were circulating with recycling bags to collect containers.”

The greening of the MLB All-Star Concert followed an event earlier in the day at the Kips Bay Boys and Girls Club, which unveiled a new playground financed by MLB Charities.

The play set was 98 percent manufactured by utilizing 22,000 recycled plastic milk containers.