In NBC’s bid to change the world, The Biggest Loser unplugged their treadmills and stepped up recycling. That’s funny when you think about it. How many mountains of food have they used in their set-ups over the seasons? Yes, I know food isn’t harmful to the environment like Styrofoam is but you don’t think they dumped those piles of cheeseburgers and pizza on a banquet table at the local homeless shelter for the hungry to dive into do you? Wasteful? Yes. A two-hour show? Also wasteful. I’m just sayin’…

In honor of “Green Week,” the contestants received new green T-shirts to wear with a recycling logo on the back, and then had to guess the amount of calories in a meat pizza and 32-oz soda placed in front of them. (Why wasn’t that soda in a glass instead of the evil paper container?) The person closest to the actual number of calories in that “meal” would receive the honor of dissolving the trios and creating duos instead. Combined, the pizza and soda contained 3,253 calories. Nicole won the challenge by guessing 3,240. Wow, she was close!

Nicole chose Neil to be her partner and then they got to choose the next duo. They paired up Ryan & Isabeau. R&I paired up Julie & Bill. J&B chose Hollie & Bryan as a team leaving Kae & Amy as the last people paired up. Kae was disappointed but Amy was happy. Of course she would be happy: Kae does more work than she does.

After the new duos were introduced to the trainers (poor Kim only has one more Red Team person left — Bryan), it was time for their challenge. Piles of waste from all of the food they would have eaten in a year were on campus for them to see: Styrofoam, pizza boxes, coffee cups, ice cream containers, and then a lifetime’s use of 148,000 aluminum cans (or 2.6 tons). Each duo had 30 minutes to fill their containers with as many cans as possible. The pair that had the most cans would win 2008 Ford Escape hybrid SUVs. Oh my!

Each of the pairs got to work running back and forth between the mound of metal and their ramps that led to their containers. It was painfully obvious that some cared more than others about winning those SUVs. As a group, they gathered 336 pounds of cans. The top two pairs were Kae & Amy and Bill & Julie. Both teams really wanted those SUVs (that’s all we kept hearing about, especially from Julie). Thankfully Bill & Julie won so we could stop listening to her cry about how she had to give up her car to raise her kids.

After the last-chance workout, it was that time again. Hello Mr. Giant Scale! Kae & Amy lost a total of 14 pounds; Hollie & Bryan lost a total of 17 pounds; Nicole & Neil lost a total of 24 pounds; Isabeau & Ryan lost 15 pounds; and Julie & Bill lost 15 pounds. Nicole & Neil easily won the weigh-in (even though I don’t like that guy I must admit he’s a machine). The team that lost the least percentage of weight though was Isabeau & Ryan. One of them would be leaving the BL campus.

Well, Ryan wound up being voted out by a unanimous vote. He wished them the best and left. Back home, he got to reunite with his four-month-old daughter and wife who were throwing him the obligatory welcome back party. Ryan weighed in at 374 pounds when he began the show and now weighs 265 pounds. He’s lost 109 pounds to date and feels more in control of his life. I must say he’s looking pretty good. It would have been nice to see him make it further. Even more so because I don’t really like Isabeau that much.

Who are you ready to have kicked off the campus? Would you like this show to be shorter than two hours? What do you think about NBC going green? How many aluminum cans do you think you use in a year?

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