Barclays Center and NYCB Live, home of the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, have become the latest venues to commit to eliminating single-use plastic straws.
The arenas have pledged to fully introduce this policy at all events by 2019, becoming the first sports and entertainment venues in the New York area to make this commitment. The move will divert from landfill the combined 5.5 million straws used annually by the two venues.
Levy Restaurants, the venue’s food and beverage provider, will offer guests a strawless lid or alternative-material straw option, which will be compostable, upon request.
The latest move steps up sustainability initiatives in place at both venues. Barclays Center was the first arena in New York to be LEED Silver Certified and, in partnership with waste management technology company Recycle Track Systems (RTS), uses composting and single-stream recycling solutions in the venue.
The arena’s culinary paper products, provided by Eco-Products, are compostable, and the venue’s green roof, the largest on any entertainment venue nationwide, reduces the amount of storm water runoff from the building by close to two million gallons per year.
NYCB Live, which reopened in April 2017 after a $180m (£137.3m/€154.4m) renovation, features a steel façade that is made of nearly 100-per-cent recycled material, while some 50 per cent of the demolition material from the renovation was diverted, sorted and recycled.
The venue worked with Ecologic Solutions to install electro-chemically activated cleaning technology, utilising salt water and electricity to produce an all-purpose cleaning detergent and sanitiser disinfectant onsite, reducing the amount of packaging and waste associated with these purchases.
Image: Tandonva
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