The Football Association has donated bibs and drawstring bags recycled from the 2022 FA Cup final pitch cover to youth football clubs across the UK.
The green initiative was created to show support for The London FA’s green developmental activities.
French multinational Veolia collected and sorted 47,600 plastic bottles from previous events at Wembley Stadium and recycled them into PET plastic yarn. The recycled material was then spun into the 2022 FA Cup Final’s 105-metre long and 68-metre-wide match day pitch cover.
The cover carried the team logos of the two finalists, Liverpool and Chelsea, and has now been repurposed again – this time into sports bibs and drawstring bags for local youth clubs.
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Veolia senior contract manager Gisela Endres said: “Supporting the 2022 FA Cup Final was just the start of the recycling journey for these plastic bottles, and it has been exciting to put sustainability first once more with this project.
“We have utilised our expertise to create bibs and bags for footballers all over the country to enjoy and showcase what can be achieved when regenerating resources. This is just one of the innovations we are working on to proudly support The London FA, and we are excited to continue finding sustainable solutions to make our game greener.”
Head of partnerships, Aquila Burgess, said: “We are delighted to be working with The FA and Veolia UK who have kindly helped to support some of our developmental activities. We look forward to seeing this in practice and hope our clubs will benefit from this support.”
In March this year, it was revealed Wembley Stadium could boast the world’s first fully recyclable football pitch.
