{"id":1685,"date":"2026-06-11T19:31:39","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T19:31:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/floridamovingchronicle.com\/?p=1685"},"modified":"2026-06-11T19:31:39","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T19:31:39","slug":"how-the-florida-panthers-modernized-their-recycling-to-win-off-the-ice-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/floridamovingchronicle.com\/?p=1685","title":{"rendered":"How the Florida Panthers modernized their recycling to win off the ice"},"content":{"rendered":"<article><!-- --><!-- --><!-- WPS-5038 -- removed the script from WPS and added the placeholder for trinity player --><!-- --><!-- --><!-- --><!-- --><!-- --><!-- --><!-- --><!-- CONTENT --><!--[--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>One might expect a tour of Amerant Bank Arena, home of the Florida Panthers, to begin down on the ice, or perhaps next to display cases with photos and memorabilia from the team\u2019s two Stanley Cup-winning seasons. But when your guide is Mike Prairie, you start with the trash cans.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/floridamovingchronicle.com\/?p=1684\">State toll board kills Miami-Dade\u2019s Kendall Parkway for a shorter 836 extension<\/a><\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>\u201c In almost every location in this building where you see a waste bin, it will be paired with a recycling bin. Every time someone\u2019s going to throw something away, we want them to have at least the option here to recycle it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>Prairie is the team\u2019s senior director of sustainability and business optimization. He has spearheaded the effort to change the way the Panthers throw away their trash.<\/p>\n<p><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>\u201c We were really busy coming out of COVID. The team was doing very well. And so the more people you have, the more waste the building produces,\u201d he said. \u201cWe were having challenges, so how do we look at every step in the waste process and figure out how to best solve for it?\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>Each game, those recycling bins are emptied multiple times and hand-separated before being recycled. It might sound like a tedious process, but the Panthers have seen a significant return on their investment into modernizing their waste-disposal practices. This past season the team diverted 217,000 pounds of trash from ending up in landfills.<\/p>\n<p><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>Prairie worked backward, starting at the loading bay where the team\u2019s trash left the building. Sitting there is a 10-ton trash compactor that handled everything that the team threw out. Once the compactor was full, it was picked up by a waste-disposal company \u2014 for a fee.<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>\u201c It doesn\u2019t matter how much weight is in there, whether it\u2019s an ounce or 10 tons, it\u2019s X amount in fees. If you have 1,000 pickups in a year times 1,000 bucks, that\u2019s what it\u2019s costing us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p><b>READ MORE: The future of Broward\u2019s trash will be put to a vote<\/b><\/p>\n<p><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>Prairie lobbied for a second compactor just for recyclables \u2014 glass, aluminum and cardboard \u2014 and began a recycling program in the arena. Separating the waste from the recycling resulted in the compactors being picked up less frequently, but one item was still giving Prairie fits.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/floridamovingchronicle.com\/?p=1682\">Federal agency knocks these South Florida hospitals for price transparency errors<\/a><\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>\u201c If you don\u2019t know much about cardboard, it\u2019s very spongy and light, and when you put it in a compactor it doesn\u2019t weigh much, but it takes up a lot of space because it doesn\u2019t compact. So, it takes up a lot of space in those compactors,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>Cardboard makes its way into the arena in food packaging and merchandise shipments on what Prairie calls \u201cdark days\u201d or times when there are no games or concerts. That makes it easy to control how it\u2019s disposed of, but Prairie needed a way to keep it from taking up space in a compactor.<\/p>\n<p><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>He purchased a cardboard baler, which compresses cardboard into bound rectangular prisms. Baled cardboard is stored in a shipping container in the parking lot of Amerant Bank Arena, and once there is enough stored it is hauled away. In addition to saving money by reducing the number of times the compactor gets picked up, the Panthers get paid a rebate for the baled cardboard.<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>To date, the team has netted tens of thousands of dollars in savings and rebates, more than the cost of the new baler and compactor, and begun to reinvest the money into the community. The team used the money made from rebates to plant a butterfly reading garden at Rock Island Elementary School.<\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>Prairie says his work is far from over. He\u2019s working to expand a pilot composting program that began in November. To date, the team has composted around 7,000 pounds of food waste. The team also donated more than 19,000 meals this past season from its leftover food. Leaning on the goodwill from a successful overhaul of the team\u2019s waste-disposal system, Prairie has his sights set on renewable energy.<\/p>\n<p><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p>\u201c The next project that\u2019s gonna take more trust because it costs more, but listen, we\u2019re gonna replicate this with solar,\u201d he said. \u201cHow do we wrap this building with a solar wrap?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/floridamovingchronicle.com\/?p=1680\">DeSantis signs death warrant for man convicted in woman\u2019s 1981 murder in Broward<\/a><\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--[--><\/p>\n<p><i>This report was produced by Miami Herald news partner WLRN Public Media.<\/i><\/p>\n<p><!-- --><!--]--><!--]--><!-- --><!-- --><!-- --><!-- --><!-- --><\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Florida Panthers modernized their waste disposal at Amerant Bank Arena, diverting 217,000 pounds of garbage that would have ended up in landfills.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1670,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environment"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - 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