This Guide is part of the “Sustainability Essentials” series developped by the IOC. It provides ideas to get you started and examples of progress from across the sporting community. It will help you to create a plastic plan and to work with suppliers, athletes and fans to reduce, reuse and recycle
AROUND THE WORLD, WE USE MILLIONS of tonnes of plastic each year because it is such a cheap and versatile material. However, much of this plastic is used just once and then thrown away. Only a small percentage gets recycled. Unfortunately, a lot of plastic waste isn’t disposed of responsibly and ends up polluting our seas, towns and countryside – harming people and wildlife. Something needs to change.
So many of us use our seas, lakes, mountains and parks to get involved in sport. Plastic pollution in the environment can have a direct impact on the sports we love, from surfing and sailing, to hiking, cycling, running and football practice. Yet sporting events can be part of the problem – generating huge amounts of plastic waste.
The good news is that it doesn’t have to be this way. Across the sporting world we can make a positive difference – eliminating single-use plastic items, reducing the amount of plastic we use and recycling as much as possible.
What’s more, we have a great opportunity to use the power of sport to encourage millions of fans to take action for the environment.
By tackling plastic and other waste, we can also support efforts to create a more circular economy where resources are continually reused and recycled.
If you look around any sporting venue or event today, you’re likely to see plastic pretty much everywhere. From the clothes worn by athletes and the artificial turf in stadiums, to the signage and tickets and the products and packaging found in shops and eateries.
Some of this plastic is essential or hard to replace, but much of it isn’t really needed – especially when it comes to single-use plastic.
With the right planning, we can design out a lot of plastic from our sporting events and, in the process, encourage our supply chain and millions of sports fans to act too.
The Toolkit, which you can download here will show you how.
It provides ideas to get you started and examples of progress from across the sporting community. It will help you to create a plastic plan and to work with suppliers, athletes and fans to reduce, reuse and recycle.