By: Peter Simek, CEO at EarthX

The EarthX team headed to the 2026 Waste Management Phoenix Open to see firsthand how the “greenest show on grass” has become a global model for circular event management.

For 13 consecutive years, the tournament has been recognized as the largest zero-waste sporting event in the world. In partnership with tournament vendors, the PGA TOUR, and the City of Phoenix, WM leads an operational effort that diverts 98% of event waste from landfills through recycling, composting, donation, and energy recovery.

But statistics only tell part of the story.

What’s remarkable is experiencing it in person: more than 180,000 people a day — essentially a temporary city — and not a single traditional landfill garbage can in sight.

Instead, every material on-site is intentionally sourced to be recyclable or compostable. WM works closely with tournament vendors to ensure products meet strict material standards, coordinating with the City of Phoenix to confirm that everything collected can actually be processed by local facilities. It’s not aspirational sustainability — it’s operational discipline.

During our visit, Lee Spivak, Director of Advisory at WM, walked the EarthX and Terram Tech teams through the logistics behind the scenes — from material sourcing and bin placement strategy to contamination management and post-event processing. The level of coordination is extraordinary.

We were guests of Terram Tech, who hosted a circularity summit during the tournament week. Terram Tech spoke at last year’s EarthX Circularity Summit, and they are one of the companies developing the material science that allows for plastic-free technologies that help make a zero-waste sporting event at this scale possible.

The experience reinforced two themes central to EarthX this year:

First, that circular economy solutions are not theoretical — they are implementable today at scale. Second, that sport has the power to drive cultural and behavioral change in ways few other platforms can.

When you can build a zero-waste city for a week and make it feel normal, you begin to shift expectations permanently.