{"id":326073,"date":"2025-12-05T02:03:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T02:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/326073\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T02:03:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T02:03:08","slug":"this-famous-golf-tournament-is-completely-zero-waste","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/326073\/","title":{"rendered":"This famous golf tournament is completely zero waste"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When it comes to golf courses, people are more likely to think of environmental waste \u2014 not solutions.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>For example, in California, the average 18-hole golf course guzzles up 90 million gallons of water per year \u200b\u200b\u2014 the equivalent of 136 Olympic-sized swimming pools.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But for the past 12 years, the Waste Management Phoenix Open golf tournament in Arizona has earned the UL Solutions zero-waste stamp of approval.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The tournament \u2014 which is sponsored by Waste Management, a national environmental services company \u2014 has developed innovative ways to divert 100% of waste from landfills through recycling, composting, and energy conversion.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Lee Spivak, who leads WM\u2019s advisory services team, said that the event is a guinea pig when it comes to testing out new environmentally friendly measures, like installing composting bins throughout the course and making turf and scaffolding out of recycled materials.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s very much our lab,\u201d Spivak <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/phoenix-open-waste-management-cf8c07967e66398e0043ddead3cb87e0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">told the Associated Press<\/a>. \u201cWe\u2019ll try an idea, try an approach to a customer. Then we\u2019ll scale it up here and take it to other customers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When it comes to water conservation \u2014 the sport\u2019s biggest offender \u2014 WM recycles greywater from the kitchens and hospitality bars by the venue\u2019s famous 16th hole, where thousands gather in stadium-style seating.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/693238c99d2d3fca9a2d2c08_sustainable-golf-course.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"A golf course holl with a flag that says &quot;0&quot; on it\"\/>Illustrated by Carra Sykes<\/p>\n<p>Since creating a reliable model for zero-waste operations at the Phoenix Open, WM has partnered with Major League Baseball to help sports venues reduce their carbon footprint and divert waste, with projects in the works at 15 ballparks.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen they start to care, the ripple effect of the influence doesn\u2019t really end,\u201d Spivak said. \u201cIt just keeps getting bigger and bigger. That\u2019s the pride I feel in this tournament.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u200d<\/p>\n<p>A version of this article originally appeared in the 2025 Sports Edition of the Goodnewspaper.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Header image via Tyler Hendy \/ Pexels<\/p>\n<p>\u200d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When it comes to golf courses, people are more likely to think of environmental waste \u2014 not solutions.\u00a0&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":326074,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[443],"tags":[49,48,622,82],"class_list":["post-326073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/326074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}