Play It Green

Because we need fun receptacles to prevent us from throwing our bottles and cans in with the regular trash…enter the Fan Can. Nothing will make you want to recycle at a game like a can that’s all dressed up in your team colors with a festive helmet/baseball cap to boot! There are more than 100 of these cans stationed around Nationals Park–thanks to Coca Cola sponsorship–and they come in baseball player, football player or motor sports driver shapes. The Maryland Company that produces the cans clearly has hit on a brilliant green marketing mashup. But I’d take it one step further–Fan Can robots! Removes that inconvenient walking to the Fan Can altogether.

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Try to imagine life without shoes. Seriously. Life barefoot—not of choice, but of necessity. Presents a lot of logistical problems, doesn’t it? Actually, it’s a major healthcare concern here and abroad, because bare feet lead to scraped and cut feet which quickly lead to infection when untreated. From the Appalachian Mountains region in Kentucky and Virginia to Ethiopia, Armenia and Indonesia, the Nashville-based nonprofit Soles4Souls donates used shoes and sneakers to needy people around the world. In fact, the organization started in the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami in Southeast Asia. A year later, they were donating sneakers and shoes to Hurricane Katrina victims, and now they’ve gone global. The sneaker company Run Athletics (launched by hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons and brother Joseph, a.k.a. Rev. Run of Run DMC) teamed up with carmaker Scion on a sneaker design contest that culminated in a party at the Aura nightclub in NYC on Jan. 30, with the Rev. judging. All the proceeds went to Soles4Souls. Besides purchasing an exclusive set of sneaks, anyone can contribute by simply locating a dropbox via the Soles4Souls website or shipping some “gently used” shoes of your own. Especially all you sneaker fanatics. And in case you’re wondering what happens in the very rare cases that shoes aren’t able to be used—they are recycled, of course.

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On Monday, the American Lung Association sent out a press release full of practical advice for tourists visiting Beijing for the Olympic Games. “To keep healthy while in Beijing, limit or avoid outdoor exercise,” said Dr. Norman Edelman, ALA’s Chief Medical Officer. They also remark that face masks aren’t going to help against prevalent gases like ozone smog. Other health advice: stay home and watch the Games on TV.

And fast-forward to 2012, when London will be hosting the Olympics and is already set to out-green China (not an altogether difficult feat) with a recyclable stadium. Designed by HOK Sport and Peter Cook, the concrete bowl base with 25,000 seats would remain in place for football and rugby matches, while the top level would feature 55,000 “transportable seats” that can travel to the next Olympic venue. This top section will be made with lighter, low-impact materials like hemp. Chicago has already agreed to take the stadium if it gets the 2016 Games, and the idea of recycling stadiums may change the whole out-of-control cost structure for hosting the Olympics, letting poorer cities opt in.

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Sports are full of inspiring individual stories, but tend to be slower on collective movements. Social justice and environmental awareness seem a little outside the realm, but that’s changing as the public perception of success and toughness expands to include respect for others—and for one’s own impact. Witness the deference given to the Phoenix Suns’ Steve Nash, who’s dedicated to supporting healthier kids and sustainable living through his foundation versus the skepticism toward the Lakers’ Kobe Bryant, who may be a stellar athlete, but hardly a winning role model.

The company Fair Trade Sports is witnessing the revolution-in-the-making as they’re selling out of their eco-certified, fair trade, union-made, vegan basketballs bearing the simple message: Respect. They direct would-be buyers to Gaiam for immediate orders or to sign a backorder list on their site. They have footballs with the message, and soccer balls, and ultimate disc frisbees, rugby balls, and more. In fact, the Seattle company was the first to launch fair trade sports balls in 2006, and to later add eco-certification, using 100% FSC-certified rubber. Design-wise, the balls are cool—not in-your-face-green, but stylish enough to stand out on the playing field. Getting the Nash kind of positive attention.

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Just because the Yankees have shown no interest in making their new stadium a model of sustainability, doesn’t mean green efforts are a lost cause for New York baseball. The Mets have worked closely with the Environmental Protection Agency on the plans for their $800 million new Citi Field, set to open in Queens in 2009. The builders—Queens Ballpark Company, LLC—will use 2 million pounds of recycled coal combustion products instead of new cement, which is equivalent to taking 1,000 cars off the road for 2 months. About 95 percent of the 12,500 tons of steel going into the stadium will be recycled, they are considering a green roof and porous pavement will control storm water runoff. Says Mayor Michael Bloomberg: “It probably would have been easier to build a new ballpark without incorporating ‘green’ technology, but the Mets understand that their responsibility to New Yorkers doesn’t end with the third out in the bottom of the ninth.” Now it only remains to be seen whose T-shirt gets ”composted” in the recycled cement.

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We all know the three R mantra of the environmental movement (a tad more logical than the three “R”s in education, since only one of those actually starts with the letter). And a few of us have even heard the catchy little Jack Johnson tune about those 3 Rs more often than we’d care to admit. But there’s passing-clothes-down-to-a-younger-sibling reusing, and there’s wearing-the-same-freaking-shirt-for-four-years reusing. The latter is what a now 12-year-old Ridgefield, Conn. boy David Witthoft did after receiving a Brett Favre jersey for his birthday in 2003. His parents, bowing to his stubborn style choice, simply washed and mended the thing to keep it wearable. The boy didn’t see an actual Green Bay Packers game until Dec. 2007, and is planning to attend the Sept. 8 game when the Packers retire Favre’s No. 4 jersey. Besides the silliness of this story getting far too much national news play, is the hidden green one. Maybe we don’t all have the “sticktoitiveness” of young David, but his obsession offers a lesson in just how durable our clothing is when we actually wear it out.

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It’s great that those artificial turf fields require so little precious resources to maintain. As long as they’re not emitting lead, that is. Last week, state investigators found that the levels of lead in the College of New Jersey’s football field and two others had lead levels eight to 10 times higher than the state’s residential soil standard for cleanup of contaminated properties. Then the Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) bought samples of residential turf online and found similar high lead levels. Of course, they don’t reveal the names of those companies because that would be providing too much information to the public. Now, says the Washington Post, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is beginning to investigate whether synthetic sports fields are dangerous. A commission spokesperson said there’s no reason parents should panic. Yet.

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What has a clever name, contains recycled rubber and is not a sneaker? The Wilson Rebound green basketball, launched just in time for Earth Day. Although it’s not green, it’s black with green lettering and made from 40 percent recycled rubber. The company says that every 70 balls add up to one tire that’s not being tossed into a landfill. While that seems like a high tire-to-ball-ratio, the company gets points for its slogan: “Think Globally, Hoop Locally,” and for packaging the whole thing in an 80 percent pre- or post-consumer recycled box. Although some might wonder why a basketball needs a box at all…

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If the press releases are to be believed, the planet’s salvation lies in footwear. Elbowing in on the eco-sneaks craze is a new line of “Endangered Waves” sandals from Vans, launched with Surfing Magazine and the Surfrider Foundation that will go to protect and preserve oceans. Wearers will only need to slip off their flip flops to remember what needs protecting: the inner soles bear images of four of the world’s most endangered waves—Ma’alaea in Hawaii, El Gongal in Spain, Bastion Point in Australia and Trestles in California—the places surfers of big waves have a serious stake in protecting. “It’s hard to imagine anyone not being concerned with the perilous state of the world’s most powerful, yet precious resources … our waves,” said Vans Vice President of Marketing, Doug Palladini. A portion of the sandals’ proceeds—$10,000—will go to Surfrider.

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 An editorial comes in my own area paper regarding the necessity of testing artificial turf playing fields. It’s strange to imagine that in the “which is greener?” argument, artificial turf beats out natural grass. It requires little upkeep and zero water, but the stuff is made from plastic, silicon sand or granulated rubber. It’s even possible that under certain weather conditions, hot sun, say, or heavy rain, toxic gases from these plastic parts (particularly zinc) could leach into the air and into the lungs of athletes. New Haven, Conn. eco-group, Environment and Human Health Incorporated, called for a moratorium on artificial turf fields until more conclusive studies are done. But an editorial in the state’s Stamford Advocate a couple days ago chastised lawmakers for wasting $250,000 to study their safety. Turns out, residents in Stamford oppose two new synthetic soccer fields near their homes. A similar field scheduled for an upscale area in Fairfield, Conn., was called off in the face of organized community protests. My guess is, neither move had much to do with health concerns. While some home and business owners are installing artificial turf in place of pesticide and water-sucking lawns in places like Las Vegas, they’re becoming a contentious presence as playing fields on the Gold Coast, where water and resource use must contend with persistent homeowner vanity.

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