I had heard for a long time about a college stadium that aims to send no trash to a landfill. But I found it hard to believe. Sporting events are the epicenter of American trash production. All of those plastic cups and food wrappers people throw away? Finding a more environmentally friendly way would amount to changing American culture.

Yet one exists on the campus of UC Davis, the northernmost campus of the University of California system that’s known for its environmental knack. It’s also, incidentally, my alma mater.

There are a few ways Aggie Stadium has been able to pull it off. One is by being  new. The 10,000-person stadium opened in 2007, which meant that officials didn’t have to retrofit