Waste Management Phoenix Open’s commitment to sustainability continues

The Waste Management Phoenix Open may look different this year, but its commitment to sustainability remains the same.

There will be fewer fans on-site at TPC Scottsdale this week, but WM will still use the week to showcase what a sustainable future could look like.

In addition to exciting golf, the tournament will display key sustainability initiatives.

WM takes its role as an industry leader seriously and wants to use its position as the title sponsor of the WM Phoenix Open to demonstrate that zero waste environmental solutions can and do work. The WM Phoenix Open is a zero-waste, carbon-neutral tournament with a balanced water footprint.

Since 2012, WM has diverted tournament waste through recycling, composting, donation, reuse or creating energy. The tournament has been carbon-neutral since 2017. The tournament offsets all greenhouse emissions from tournament operations and tournament-related travel. The WMPO also purchases 100% renewable electricity from Arizona Public Service and since 2011, water from cooking and cleaning has been reused in portable toilets.

This year, WM is educating viewers both at home and on-site on how to recycle right.

Recycling right means recycling only bottles, cans, paper and cardboard while keeping food, liquid, and plastic bags – including bagged recyclables -- out of recycling bins. Food and liquid contaminate recyclable materials while plastic bags get caught in machinery and slow the process. Recycling gives products a second life, allowing them to serve a new purpose and save natural resources.

WM is working to close the “recycling loop” by working with manufacturers and retailers to increase market demand for post-consumer content. Recycled materials generated at the WM Phoenix Open will be used to create new products. WMPO partners that will use recycled material to produce new products include Refresh Glass, Ball Corporation and Pratt Industries.

To engage fans unable to attend this year’s tournament, WM is giving fans the chance to win a once-in-a-lifetime VIP trip to the 2022 Waste Management Phoenix Open. Click here to learn more about the #GreenBucketList Trip Sweepstakes.

Twelve WM employees will be featured virtually on 16 as part of the tournament’s Faces on 16 program, as well. They were winners of the company’s 2020 Waste Management drivers, MRF operators, landfill operators and technicians of the year program. Tournament caddies will wear safety bibs in honor of Waste Management’s hardworking drivers and the company’s commitment to safety.