The London FA and Veolia have donated bibs and drawstring bags recycled from the 2022 FA Cup Final pitch cover to youth football clubs.
Veolia and the Football Association (FA) partnered to create a recycled plastic banner which unveiled the pitch ready for the 2022 FA Cup Final in support of the London FA’s green developmental activities.
Veolia said it collected and sorted 47,600 plastic bottles from events at Wembley Stadium and recycled them into PET plastic yarn. The recycled material was used to create the 2022 FA Cup Final’s 105-metre long and 68-metre wide match day pitch cover.
London FA 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.”
As part of The FA’s Sustainability Strategy to Save Our Resources and Veolia’s regeneration of resources strategy, the banner has now been repurposed into drawstring bags and sports bibs. They were donated to participants of the London Girls Cup Final and local London grassroots teams.
Commenting on the project, Gisela Endres, Veolia Senior Contract Manager, 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.”
