Fencing and the Environment

[teacup]

Why can't the USFA and its members recycle at national events?

There is a huge number of plastic bottles that are not recycled not only at national but all tournaments. A few convention centers, such as Portland, had recycling containers but the Gaylord did not. Even with containers, it is shameful so few fencers use them.

The Gaylord being totally enclosed must have a huge air conditioning bill. I realize that venues must be cool for the athletes, especially in a place like Texas, but why does the rest of the Gaylord facility need to be so cold?

Fencers are bringing a lot of money to the Gaylord, why not ask them to supply recycling containers? If a venue, such as the Gaylord, doesn't want to help the environment, why support them?

Could the effect on the environment please be one of the considerations when choosing locations?

Due to not recycling, the amount of air travel, and other practices, fencing isn't a very "green" sport. Fencers could at least do their part by refilling sports bottles, recycling and supporting "green" venues whenever possible.

[Greg]

If it's that important to you, why don't you organize a recycling operation for all the plastic waste?

[KShan5[PrFC]]

Because no one cares?

[Inquartata]

Some people care, just not quite as much as Teacup, apparently.

It's true that it wouldn't seem to be all that difficult to put out recyclable barrels next to the regular trash ones ( which the hotel staff seems to empty about every five minutes, whether they need it or not ). But I think that's more on the Gaylord than the USFA...

[Mergs]

The sport is not the problem. It's the people, as is the problem with most things.

Personally, I recycle, but only after my wife pointed out the reduced cost aspect of things. Plus, when we were in an apartment, they had single stream recycling, so our recycling bag was usually 5 times bigger than our regular trash!

I only buy one bottle of water, and then constantly refill it. More interested in my pocket book than the environment. That's why I prefer draft beer, at least the glass is supposed to be washed and reused. Trust me, gone are the days of deposits on glass bottles, like when I grew up.

Funny story about some kids I knew......local grocery store used to stack their bottles out behind the store. That is until someone noticed the same kids coming in on a regular basis to get they deposit on coke bottles, six-packs at a time. By regular, I mean 5 or 6 times a day! Turns out they'd just go around to the back of the store, pick up a couple of six-packs and go back to the front of the store to redeem them! Store finally wised up and began storing them inside the store!

[Phincer]

The Gaylord being totally enclosed must have a huge air conditioning bill. I realize that venues must be cool for the athletes, especially in a place like Texas, but why does the rest of the Gaylord facility need to be so cold?

They probably have the whole system balanced to keep the AC units running more efficiently. The more hot and humid the air, the harder the system has to work to cool and pull out moisture. They are probably spending less than we think.

And I second asking the venues to provide recycling containers. I seem to remember that Sacramento had recycling.

[Inquartata]

I did see recycle bins upstairs, on the third floor of the convention center, where they had the meetings and seminars. They sort of blended in with the decor, though. Maybe there were some downstairs, too, and I just didn't notice. In the venue itself, though...just trash cans.

[occasionalfencer]

Many of you have a touching faith in recycling containers. I was one of the very first people I knew to recycle, back when it meant saving my recyclables, carefully washed out and flattened, labels removed, until I had a carful, then hauling them to the recycling station. There were no recycling containers. You can set up, and fill up, all the recycling containers you want, but if there is not a recycling station for them to go to, all those full recycling containers will not create one. Recycling is a multi step process. One of the steps requires a recycling station. If there were a recycling station that the Gaylord could use, I imagine that they already would have set up the containers, in order to reduce their own trash disposal costs.

[Inquartata]

Like I said, there were recycling containers upstairs in the convention center.
Of course, maybe they were just for show, and get emptied into the regular trash by the staff. But they were there.

I still take recyclables like cans, newspaper and plastic bottles to a recycling drop-off dumpster station. My neighborhood doesn't have the curbside recycling.

[Guerre]

http://www.surfthechannel.com/episode/2749/48394.html

it's a good one!

[ladyofshalott99]

...A more obvious answer would be that if the resort offered recycling to Convention Attendees (like us), that cost would be added to the fees that the USFA would pay to rent the facility. In turn, those fees would be passed on to us. The attendees of Summer Nationals (or other events like it) generate a HUGE amount of plastic waste. That translates to cost of collection via bins, and transportation to a recycling facility. Since most companies pay a fee based on the weight of the items they recycle (office paper in corporate environments is another good example), the costs compared to the benefits (happier patrons, made less happy by paying increased event fees) are significant. We're also not talking about the sorting of "acceptable" recyclables vs. "unacceptable" recyclables as well (because not all plastics are created equally, and some are just thrown away by said recycling facilities).

The simplest answer is to ask yourself what you could have done to minimize the impact of your own use at the event (take a refillable water bottle, pack-out your used plastics and recycle them at home, etc.).

There's always a solution, it's just not always the most convenient.

[Grasshopper]

maybe the FIE should issue refs "Green Cards" and penalize the fencers when they don't recycle. Throwing your recycleable products in the regular trash would lose you one point from your next match.

**note1: Throwing your mask anywhere would still be a black card.
**note2: Throwing a flaming bagel in the regular trash would also be a black card, although it is non-recycleable. Please extinguish your bagels before throwing them out.

[flechewounds]

While recycling at big events is a laudable goal, it is probably more important to use care when at one's home club - where people fence 5-6 days a week, etc.

When we visited Golden Gate fencing the first time, we became aware of their "reusable water bottle" policy. Really a no brainer, but one that we hadn't previously put a whole lot of thought into. In any case, that visit was a behavior changer for us - at least for practice. We now almost always bring pre-filled reusable bottles to practice.

Tournaments are a bit more difficult - as water sources are more variable (although the Gaylord turned out to be OK) and the days are longer. Also, at that point, the competitors are rightfully focused completely on their fencing. But at the club - definitely - use your USFA bottles!

[Inquartata]

Throwing a flaming bagel in the regular trash would also be a black card, although it is non-recycleable. Please extinguish your bagels before throwing them out.

What if you have purchased an offsetting carbon credit?

[PsychoCemia]

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and agree with Guerre.

If you're going to fencing tournaments and trying to revamp their trash handling, you're doing it wrong.

Definitely go back and watch that link that Guerre posted, and note that plastic containers are the least viable (economically and effectively) of all "recyclable" resources.

You should be worried about your fencing more than what that guy over there is doing with his empty Gatorade bottle.

[Delta]

Along the line of teacup's thinking, just wanted to throw in that of the 3 Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle), Recycling is the weakest in terms of environmental returns. Turning the thermostat to a 74 degree vs. 72, wearing those clothes you had until you absolutely have to throw them out, etc.

America in general has run on a wasteful lifestyle, but as someone else mentioned earlier, recycling shouldn't be the only step to helping everyone.

[teacup]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/ne...00/8141774.stm

A ban on selling bottled water has been introduced in a rural town in Australia because of concerns about its impact on the environment.

People living in Bundanoon, New South Wales, say pumping, bottling and distributing the water wastes too many resources and creates too much rubbish.

Residents and visitors will now be encouraged to fill reusable bottles from free water fountains in the town.