TUCSON, Ariz. — Business organizations often talk about the importance of the three R’s, but the University of Arizona athletics concession stands take reducing, reusing and recycling to heart.

As for reusing, the university offers a refill deal in baseball and softball that’s expected to soon expand to other sports where fans can bring back a cup up to 32 ounces and get it refilled for a cheaper price.

The stands also offer souvenir cups, which are reusable items and 100 percent recyclable, as they can be cut up to eventually be made into benches and materials similar to that, said Brett Brestel, division manager for concessions at the UA.

“I guess we’re more into, well, recycling in the sense that they reuse the item,” Brestel said. “Like this year we instituted a plastic popcorn container which is selling pretty good, and what they can do is they can bring that back for the next game and we’ll refill it for a lower price.

"So we’re kind of more into the reuse and not the hope somebody chops it up and uses it.”

Brestel’s thinking is that it might cost fans $8 in the beginning, but you can refill it for the same price as something half its size, which is getting many customers to come back.

Mike Jacobs, sales manager for Stadium and Arena Concessions, sells the plastic souvenir cups to the UA that are offered for sale to fans at games. Jacobs said the product is reusable and dishwasher safe because it’s made out polypropylene, a material that can be recycled and ground up.

It’s been that way for his company since it started in 1972, which Stadium and Arena Concessions informs its consumers of by putting the recycling symbol at the bottom of all cups.

The company is federally mandated, however, to make the actual product out of virgin material to avoid somebody recycling a cup that stored toxic waste, which eventually could then get mixed into a consumer’s food or drink. After it’s ground up, that product then can be recycled into a material that does not come in contact with food, such as a flower pot or warehouse equipment.

“We definitely are ahead of the curve because our cup is a souvenir meant to be taken home and used over and over as opposed to a single-service cup used once,” Jacobs said. “That’s where the green issue is more focused on our product, which is designed to be used more than once.”

This material is in contrast to paper cups, which go right into the trash after use because they cannot stand up to the heat in a dishwasher.

“We use them over and over again and people take them home from athletic events,” Jacobs said. “We’re asking people to use the product more than once and from that standpoint it is recycling.

"Anything in this world is disposable and has a useful life, it’s just how long it’s going to be used before this useful life ends and what you do with it after that. Our cup is designed to be used over and over again.”

Jacobs added his company flaunts the reusability of its cups “as a selling point every day.”

McKale Center also uses carry trays that are made out of 100 percent post-consumer waste to help consumers bring their food to their seats, Brestel said.

Recycle bins dot the arena for cups, aluminum cans, plastic water bottles and other such things to be recycled.

UA sophomore Sarah David said she thinks more could be done with recycling, suggesting the school should put recycling bins outside near the Zona Zoo student section pregame lineup.

Students often drink water bottles while they wait for entrance to the arena but have to throw them out before they get inside.

“Everybody comes with a water bottle, and they have to get rid of it, but they just put it in the trash,” David said.

As for the potential trash created in concessions, Brestel said cardboard represents a major source of recycling. Much of the food and utensils he orders are packaged in cardboard, so at the end of the game custodians pick up the cardboard to bring over to Facilities Management for recycling.

“We have a pretty intense cardboard recycling,” Brestel said.

Finally for reducing, McKale Center is transitioning into using ketchup and mustard pumps so as not to create so much trash as the packets make. Instead of having the packets go straight into the garbage, the pumps can be easily refilled without throwing anything away.

“(It) is very economical and also very low trash usage,” Brestel said.