By: Nestor Resendiz 2018 AT&T Byron Nelson Junior Reporter
Imagine a golf tournament that had no trash cans. What if you came up to a green and there were bottles and trash everywhere? That would be awful.
That will not happen at the AT&T Byron Nelson because Blue Strike Environmental is on duty. They have a team of 40-60 people who empty trash cans from 6:00 AM – 8:00 PM every day, and then actually empty each bag of trash. They rip it open and remove every piece of trash, separating out recyclables, compost and trash. Their goal is to recycle 50% of the garbage, and divert another 20%. Divert means to repurpose things like carpet and wood. The carpet, for example, is going to be donated to people who need it. Yay!
I got all this fascinating information from Rico Tesio, CEO of Blue Strike Environmental. He estimated that each PGA Tour event produces an amount of 100-150 tons of trash. Can you believe that?!
Tessio’s team has enormous help from the company Champion. They help by picking up the garbage and compost. A lot of the compost is hot dogs, banana peels and watermelon. It smelled awful! It honestly made me feel a bit nauseous.
The awesome people helping sort the trash are volunteers from local schools or organizations such as Spruce High School Alumni Association and the Pemberton Trinity Forest Neighborhood Association. They do this work to raise money for their groups.
Final thing before I go – today was so hot we were smacking sweat off our head. But the Blue Strike Environmental team felt even hotter. I think they have one of the hardest – and most important – jobs that you can have at a PGA Tour event.
