Philadelphia Union's Subaru Park achieves unique environmental milestone

The Philadelphia Union's home of Subaru Park has achieved zero landfill status, becoming the first soccer-specific stadium in MLS to reach the milestone, the club announced Monday.

Zero landfill status means that all waste generated at Union games will either be reduced, reused or recycled. In an average year, Subaru Park will divert approximately 357,480 pounds of waste from local landfills.

“We are incredibly proud to achieve this milestone alongside our partners at Subaru of America,” Union president Tim McDermott said. “We firmly believe that through our work with Subaru, we are helping our fans and soccer community reduce our impact on the environment by reducing, reusing and recycling waste at Subaru Park. Subaru has blazed a trail for sustainability by making Subaru Park an example to the rest of MLS.”

The milestone was achieved following evaluations that showed many items could be eliminated or replaced with a better, recyclable or compostable option. To simplify the recycling and composting process, Subaru Park installed more than 100 MAX-R Containers throughout various locations in the 18,500-seat venue.

The achievement was celebrated at Philadelphia's October 23 home match against Nashville SC with a commemorative jersey patch and ceremonial re-opening as a zero-landfill stadium.