The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 7 will recognize the St. Louis Cardinals baseball club for efforts to divert, donate and compost food waste around Busch Stadium, in an on-field ceremony prior to the Cardinals-Reds game today, Monday, April 29.

The Cardinals are helping to recycle food waste and keep it out of landfills. Landfills are one of the largest contributors of methane gas, which affects climate change, including warmer temperatures, stronger storms and more droughts.

The Cardinals are members of EPA’s Food Recovery Challenge program. The Cardinals and their organization’s concessionaire, Delaware North Companies, have diverted more than 27 tons of unused food from concession stands in Busch Stadium to Operation Food Search to feed the area’s poor and hungry.

The Food Recovery Challenge encourages organizations to find better alternatives to throwing food away. It helps organizations learn to practice leaner purchasing and divert surplus food away from landfills to hunger-relief organizations and onto the tables of those in need in the community. It also diverts food scraps, suitable for composting or animal consumption, to composting or animal feed.

Since 2008, the St. Louis Cardinals have diverted approximately 2,000 tons of solid waste from local landfills. The organization has reduced its energy use by 20 percent and its water use by 10 percent since the new Busch Stadium opened in 2006. On average, four tons of trash are recycled at the stadium each game. There are approximately 550 recycling bins throughout the stadium. The Cardinals are members of the Green Sports Alliance, which includes more than 160 sports teams and venues.

The Food Recovery Challenge asks participants to reduce as much of their food waste as possible – saving money, helping communities, and protecting the environment.