Tournament Ideas

Just wondering what others have done to help "green up" their tournament. I am running the Zoo Town Open in Missoula, MT, this Memorial Day (may 24-25) and we are planning on making sustainability a focus, so I figured this would be a good place to brainstorm! Recycling will be a good start, but just curious if there are any good ideas out there.

[Terry "the Pirate" Calhoun]

Hi, one thing my wife and I have done is take a large container and ask for a moment to announce at the players meeting that we are willing to recycle plastic and metal cans and bottles. Surprisingly, even at Hudson Mills Metropark, the park does not do this. You can generally count on people who need dollars badly to wander around the course and pick up all the deposit return bottles and cans, but not the others.

We point out that if you can carry your bottle or water or Gator-Ade out onto the course full then (a) you've proven that there is room for it in your bag and (b) it's lighter coming in than it was going out - so please bring it back in and put it in out container.

We've done this 3-4 times and collected, then recycled lots of stuff each time.

One more thing would be to be sure that re-usable water bottles with disc golf logos are among the prizes. Once someone has one, they are more likely to use it than to buy bottled water in throw-away plastic.

[Platydaddy]

As the pirate mentioned, encouraging proper recycling is a good point.

At our tournaments we try to have available food and drinks to cut back on folks zipping into town to buy stuff.

At our winter tournament we serve hot cider and spent some time searching out paper hot cups, rather than plastic or foam, especially since so many throw their cups into the bonfire.

I find that fliers that are not laminated usually hold up for 2-4 weeks, I usually dont laminate unless I want a flier to last all season. A strong rainy windy storm might trash your unlaminated fliers but it's easy to post another set.

An online ride board to encourage car pooling would be a good idea.

Randy

[Ian]

Choose barrel beer over bottles and cans. Encourage people to refill their water bottles with tap water. Use rubber mats, made from recycled material, instead of cement. Let wood and leaves decompose into low spots rather than burning or hauling away.

As the Platty Daddy says, make the amenities available on site so people don't have to leave the site between rounds.

[Hyzer Dog]

I agree with Terry about giving away the reusable water bottles. I live in So Cal and there is one tournament here where they give out a logo'd reusable bottle in the players package. Then everybody will have a bottle to reuse, and they do use them.

[Paul Thompson]

Besides improving the signage and containers for recycling and trash separation, composting is the new hero in the Green Action market.

Non recyclable paper products (tissue, coffee cups and sleeves of paper, pizza boxes, any paper food of drink container that isn't plastic. Add to yard waste and kitchen scraps (apples, banana peels, anything edible) and put in the new Bio bags that break down after use completely,

The trick is to get your park system, town, city to start a compost program.

many are successful....Mpls, Edina, St. Paul MN and it lowers the trash bill by over 50% in many cases plus the waste saving and re use for farms, gardens and energy production (anaerobic biodigestion) are huge considerations.

Also can be used in school lunchrooms, businesses and restaurants.

Buy stock now it's the next "plastics"

Paul Thompson

Edina MN

[Paul Thompson]

Paul Thompson said:

Besides improving the signage and containers for recycling and trash separation, composting is the new hero in the Green Action market.

Non recyclable paper products (tissue, coffee cups and sleeves of paper, pizza boxes, any paper food of drink container that isn't plastic. Add to yard waste and kitchen scraps (apples, banana peels, anything edible) and put in the new Bio bags that break down after use completely,

The trick is to get your park system, town, city to start a compost program.

many are successful....Mpls, Edina, St. Paul MN and it lowers the trash bill by over 50% in many cases plus the waste saving and re use for farms, gardens and energy production (anaerobic biodigestion) are huge considerations.

Also can be used in school lunchrooms, businesses and restaurants.

Buy stock now it's the next "plastics"

Paul Thompson

Edina MN