The federal Environmental Protection Agency, the National Football League and other partners are teaming up to collect and recycle bottles and cans in the parking lot of Aloha Stadium during Pro Bowl 2007 tomorrow .

Also participating are the Boys and Girls Clubs of Hawai'i, Honolulu Recovery Systems and Aloha Stadium. Like last year, cans and bottles will be collected for recycling from the stadium's surrounding parking lot areas that are designated for tailgating.

This year, the effort will expand to include more parking lot areas. The goal is to collect more than 12,000 cans and bottles, worth $600 through deposit rebates.

Community Energy, a green energy marketer and developer, has committed to match the money raised, with proceeds going to the Boys and Girls Clubs of Hawai'i.

"Concerts and sporting events provide a great opportunity to reinforce the importance of recycling," said Jeff Scott, division director for the EPA Pacific Southwest Region's Waste Division. In addition to saving resources, he said recycling reduces greenhouse gas and other emissions.

Community Energy is also donating renewable energy credits to offset greenhouse gas emissions from the Pro Bowl and the NFL Pro Bowl Tailgate Party. The EPA will work with the NFL to calculate the net carbon savings from its Pro Bowl activities.

In other "green" efforts, the NFL will sponsor tree-planting projects at several schools. One of the schools has committed to develop a tree nursery on campus to raise native species trees. The first of these efforts takes place at Jarrett Middle School in Honolulu. Other tree plantings will take place at Ma'ili Elementary School and at Punahou School.

The Pro Bowl recycling event is one of many public recycling projects put on by EPA's "Recycle on the Go" program, which encourages recycling at concerts, sporting events and other locations, by working with partners to encourage people to recycle wherever they go by making recycling easy and convenient.

The EPA is working toward a goal of a 35 percent recycling rate nationwide. Recycling saves energy, conserves resources, reduces the need for new landfills and incinerators, and stimulates the development of green technologies.