NFL Draft material finds a new home in Detroit’s sustainability efforts

(CBS DETROIT) – As the massive setup surrounding the NFL Draft in Detroit is dismantled piece by piece, most of it will go back into the rental companies’ inventory, but hundreds of tons of equipment tailor-made for the event will soon have a second home.

“So we want to recover as much as possible, try to make sure that the money and use associated with these products stays local as much as possible. And that’s really, you know, just the nature of the way events work, something that’s going to remain entirely within the Detroit metro area,” said Ryan Sclar, sustainability manager at ENGIE Impact

That’s why the NFL looked to local nonprofits that could find a way to reuse the resource.

Over the next three days, Habitat for Humanity of Oakland County will make several trips to the footprint in search of the wood, artificial grass and mesh.

“We always try to fill our ReStores with lots of creative, unique items for people to get. This definitely qualifies as unique,” ​​said Steve Tennies, ReStore donation manager at Habitat for Humanity of Oakland County. “If it has cool logos on it, maybe they can come to our ReStores – the majority will be at our Farmington Hills ReStore on Grand River near Eight Mile.”

Other groups are hunting for items that will one day be considered artifacts for the historical event that took place record-breaking crowd.

“There have been events like this in the past, and they all represent a junction in history that takes us to the next place we are going to become. Some of the things the Detroit Historical Society does that people don’t do “I don’t think about contemporary collecting,” said Rebecca Salminen Witt, director of development and communications for the Detroit Historical Society.

According to Sclar, at least 25 trucks of donated materials will end up back in the community.

“We’re looking for signage; we’re looking for things with the ‘City of Detroit’ on them, the ‘NFL Draft,'” Salminen Witt said. “We picked up something that has all the streets and signage on it: period IDs, and all that stuff that you know will jog your memory and bring back some nostalgia for the weekend we just had.”