The results are in: Bowdoin placed 2nd in its division for its diversion rate back at the Homecoming football game in October. Bowdoin posted an 81.8% diversion rate, which represents all the recyclable materials and food waste prevented from ending up in a landfill.

Overall, Bowdoin ranked 7th. In the 2012 Game Day Challenge, 79 schools and 5.4 million fans diverted nearly 1.09 million pounds of waste from the landfill, thereby preventing more than 1,732 metric tons of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere.

The Game Day Challenge, organized by the EPA, is a friendly competition for colleges and universities to promote waste reduction at their football games. During the challenge, schools implement waste reduction programs and track their progress. The Bowdoin Green Athletes, under the direction of Alex Tougas ’14, became the first school in the New England Small College Athletic Conference to compete.