The GameDay Football Zero Waste Touchdown Challenge is a nationwide competition among colleges and universities to reduce and recycle the waste generated at home football games.
Using equitable, just, and friendly competition, the GameDay Football Zero Waste Touchdown Challenge provides tools and opportunities that inspire, empower, and mobilize colleges and universities to benchmark and improve efforts to reduce and eliminate waste at home football games. As part of the Campus Race to Zero Waste program, GameDay Football challenges campuses nationwide to reduce the waste footprint of their home games and tailgating events through efforts including reduction of single-use plastics use, food waste recovery, use of reusable products, recycling, and more.
2026 Challenge Guidelines and Rules:
- Choose one home football game to track and report your recycling, food organics, and trash data in pounds. Please submit data for one home game only.
- College and university participants will be required to report on game attendance (tickets sold or scanned); tailgating attendance will be requested if waste was collected from pre-game events.
- Four categories will be available to participate in (campuses can participate in one or more of these categories):
- Diversion: Track and report on trash, recycling, rescued food, food waste composted/anaerobic digestion generated. There will be two options for participating in the Diversion category
- Stadium + Tailgating
- In Stadium only
- Recycling Per Capita: Track and report on cans/bottles, paper and cardboard in stadium; Tailgating area is optional.
- Rescuing Food: Track and report food rescued to feed people and/or repurposed to feed livestock and food waste in the stadium (tailgating area is optional) that is composted or processed through anaerobic digestion.
- Diverting Food Waste from Landfills/Incineration: Track and report on trash and food waste in the stadium that is composted or processed through anaerobic digestion; Tailgating area is optional.
- Diversion: Track and report on trash, recycling, rescued food, food waste composted/anaerobic digestion generated. There will be two options for participating in the Diversion category
- Five winners will be chosen:
- Diversion – highest recycling rate of recycling/food organics diverted from the landfill
- Stadium + Tailgating
- Stadium Only
- Recycling Per Capita – highest generation of recyclables per capita
- Rescuing Food: highest rate of food rescued to feed people and/or repurposed to feed livestock.
- Diverting Food Waste from Landfills/Incineration: highest rate of food waste diverted away from landfills / incineration through the practices of food waste composting and anaerobic digestion.
- Diversion – highest recycling rate of recycling/food organics diverted from the landfill
2026 Key Dates and Deadlines for the GameDay Football Challenge:
- November 16 (Monday): Last day to register for the GameDay Football Challenge
- November 28 (Saturday): Last day to hold a GameDay event
- December 28 (Monday): Last day to report ALL data
- January 27 (Wednesday): Winners announced
2025 Winners:
- Ohio University, Ohio – Diversion: Stadium + Tailgating
- The Ohio State University, Ohio – Diversion: Stadium Only
- University of Colorado Boulder – Recycling Per Capita
- University of Richmond, Virginia – Food Organics Per Capita
Read press release announcing the winners for the 2025 GameDay Football Challenge.
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2024 Winners:
- Ohio University, Ohio – Diversion: Stadium + Tailgating
- The Ohio State University, Ohio – Diversion: Stadium Only
- University of Colorado Boulder, Colorado – Recycling Per Capita
- Grand Valley State University, Michigan – Waste Minimization Per Capita
- University of Richmond, Virginia – Food Organics Per Capita
Review the 2024 GameDay Football Zero Waste Touchdown Challenge Final Results
2023 Winners:
- University of Colorado Boulder – Recycling Per Capita Category
- University of Minnesota – Food Organics Per Capita Category
- Grand Valley State University – Waste Minimization Per Capita Category
- University of Tennessee, Knoxville and Georgia Institute of Technology – Outdoor Events Cleanup Category
2023 GameDay Zero Waste Touchdown Final Report