IMS shifts recycling, composting efforts into high gear
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe Indianapolis 500 is the largest single-day sporting event in the world, and hundreds of thousands of fans can create a lot of trash. This year, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is revving up its sustainability efforts.
“It became really clear to us early on [during] this journey that we have a great impact not only from the events that we have, but also the with the opportunity to influence fans and what they take home with them from our track,” Logan Waddle, sustainability program leader for Penske Entertainment Corp., said. “It really started for us with a recycling program. We didn’t have that back just a few short years ago, and it’s expanded to finding new, innovative ways to divert our waste from landfill.”
Last year, IMS says it recycled 289 tons of materials from events and operations. Some of the materials have a new purpose at other Indiana companies.
For the first time, all glass from liquor and beer bottles at the track’s bars are being sent to Knauf Insulation in Shelbyville. Knauf uses the glass in its insulation manufacturing process and recently announced an expansion of its Indiana operations.
Plastic bags and plastics from merchandise packaging are sent to California-based Brightmark Energy’s $260 million facility in the northeast Indiana town of Ashley, where it is turned into fuel.
IMS is also expanding its composting efforts by using bamboo cutlery and paper products. The new initiative debuted at Rev, an annual fundraiser for the Indiana University Health Foundation that’s held at the track, earlier this month.
“We’re collecting those front of house for the first time, despite doing it back of house in our catering kitchens and our suites for a number of years,” Waddle said. “Food that’s left over from our suites that’s eligible to be donated, it goes to our our friends at Gleaners [Food Bank] and gets redistributed to the local community.”
At Rev, Zero Waste Team volunteers like Amelia Magyar helped guests understand which bin to put their trash in.
“It’s kind of a systemic issue. Guests don’t really know [what to do]. It’s not that they’re not wanting to make a behavior switch; they’re just not educated on where to correctly place their waste. As guests approach, they’re kind of playing this game of ‘which color is my waste gonna go in?'” Magyar said. “We’re seeing that guests are actually inquiring about this process and wanting to be involved in this waste diversion process.”
IMS tracks its waste diversion numbers, and they’ve improved every year. The Speedway hopes to see an even bigger jump this year.
To learn more about IMS’ sustainability goals, click here.