D.C. Baseball Stadium Installs Fan Cans for Recycling

In partnership with Coca-Cola North America’s “Give it Back” recycling campaign, the Washington Nationals have installed more than 100 Fan Cans in Nationals Park to promote recycling bottles and cans. Since its launch in 2008, Maryland-based Fan Cans LLC has been targeting sports stadiums for its recycling bins.

The Washington Nationals have installed Fan Cans to promote recycling. Photo: Fan Cans, LLC.

The bins are customizable for a sports franchise, with the lid taking the shape and color of helmets worn by baseball and football players, as well as automobile drivers. These also happen to be the three largest drawing professional sports in the U.S.

The cans themselves are made of 50 percent post-consumer recycled plastic, with an opening designed to fit bottles and cans. The Nationals placed the bins in high-traffic areas to encourage in-stadium recycling.

“With ‘Give It Back,’ we aim to inspire people to join us in our efforts to recycle and reuse all of our bottles and cans in the U.S.,” says Celeste Bottorff, vice president of Living Well, Coca-Cola North America.

The “Give it Back” campaign previously made a splash at New York’s Fashion Week, where Coca-Cola set up bins in hopes of recycling 11,000 pounds of drink containers. The company has also established a recycling presence at the Democratic and Republican National Conventions and the Daytona 500.

“Fan Cans make it easy for sponsors to link their brand with the green movement, while also connecting with sports teams and their fans,” explains Stephen Wolford, president of Fan Cans, LLC.”…The exposure value is high, and sports fans really love and use the product, giving the bottom-line numbers for the sponsor’s and team’s recycling efforts a nice boost.”