​How Does This Impact Sports Clubs?

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Soon sports clubs, regardless of size, will be required to separate dry recycling, general waste, and food waste, no matter how small the quantity produced. This means clubs must review their waste disposal methods and ensure they have the appropriate bins and collection services in place.

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Common waste streams for sports clubs may include:​

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• Plastic bottles and cans from refreshments

• Food waste from club cafes or events

• Cardboard and paper from promotional materials

• General waste that cannot be recycled.

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What Are the Benefits of These New Regulations?

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The new waste regulations offer several key benefits:

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• Improved Recycling Rates: Encouraging clubs to separate waste correctly will help divert recyclable materials from landfill.

• Environmental Impact: Reducing landfill waste will lower emissions and contribute to a more sustainable planet.

• Economic Savings: More efficient waste management could lead to cost savings for clubs in the long term.

• Compliance & Reputation: Being proactive in sustainability efforts can enhance your club’s reputation and attract sustainable-minded players, supporters, volunteers and sponsors.

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The Importance of Recycling Your Sports Kit

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For many clubs, in particular those in junior and youth football, the largest and most frequent outlay of funds is on purchasing new kit. The problem with regularly purchasing new is that this is adding to the problem of climate change through the manufacturing process.

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The raw material for shirts is polyester, which is a plastic created from extracting oil, further depleting natural resources before it is refined into the polyester required for the garment. This process requires massive amounts of energy and water which in turn releases damaging amounts of CO2 into our atmosphere. The fashion/textile industry as a whole is responsible for 10% of all global CO2 emissions. 

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​What Can Your Club Do?

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Keeping kit in circulation for longer is key. The durability of sports kit has vastly improved over the last few years which means that items now have a shelf life of 5+ years, not 2 or 3 which is the case for some.

 

Alternatively, you could try one or all of the following:​

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• Run a rental, returns, or reuse initiative, such as Football Rebooted, to pass unwanted kit on to others who need it

• Donate unwanted kit to local schools for their teams

• Donate or sell kit using online platforms like kitround, eBay and Facebook to generate club funds.

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We are keen to work with clubs who want to try and establish the first-ever circular economy for kit. Email hello@savetodayplaytomorrow.com using the subject title “Circular Economy”.

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Why Recycle Sports Kit?

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• An estimated £140 million worth (350,000 tonnes) of used clothing goes to waste in landfill every year.

• The average UK household owns around £4,000 worth of clothes, but around 30% hasn’t been worn for at least a year.

• Clothing made from natural materials like cotton, wool and leather will produce a range of greenhouse gases while biodegrading in landfill sites.

• For every tonne of textiles reused rather than sent into landfill, CO2eq (harmful greenhouse gases) are reduced by 7 tonnes.

• Extending the average life of clothes by nine months (the length of a football season) would save £5 billion in resources used to supply, launder and dispose of clothing.

• Donating your unwanted clothing and household items to The Salvation Army helps raise millions for good causes. *Source of statistics: WRAP.​​

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