Target Field Becomes 'Trash Free'
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- The Minnesota Twins are off to a good start this season, and now Target Field also has some bragging rights.
The Twins say they now have the greenest ballpark in Major League Baseball. This comes after a partnership with a company called Eco Products in the effort to cut down on plastic.
It means Target Field is officially "trash free."
"Plastic can be recycled. But this stuff can literally go back into the earth once it's been broken down a little bit," Twins spokesman Chris Iles said. "The biggest change people will notice here at Target Field is that anything that touches food -- a plate, a bowl, a cup -- can now be composted instead of recycled or thrown away in the trash."
Something that looks like a plastic cup is actually made out of a corn resin, a biodegradable product. So when fans are done with their cup, it gets throw into a compost bin.
Thomas Hillesheim Jr. and his father came to Target Field to watch the Big Ten Conference tournament on Wednesday. He had no idea his burger was sitting on something that will soon be turned into compost. But he thinks the idea is a hit.
"That's pretty sweet," Hillesheim, Jr. said. "Less garbage, easier to take care of."
There are still some exceptions to the Eco Products initiative, like plastic Pepsi bottles and aluminum cans. And souvenir-style fan favorites are still safe.
"The big souvenir nacho helmet is not compostable. That's a souvenir that's meant to be taken home and put on your mantel for a keepsake or your kids can wear it around the house, once it's been cleaned out of course," Iles said.
So now zero percent of anything that touches food at Target Field is trash. It's all recycled or composted.
Other Twin Cities sports teams are doing something similar, including the St. Paul Saints.
The Minnesota Wild and the Xcel Energy Center currently recycle 60 percent of all waste and compost over 300 tons of material each year.
