Wembley scores a recycling first

One of the world’s most iconic football stadiums, Wembley in London, UK, has developed a process to make its pitch 100% recyclable.

It is believed to be a first football arena to do so. Modern pitches at the top of the sport are a hybrid of grass and synthetic plastic to make them more durable. However, having plastic within a pitch means they do not break down naturally and most old pitches are sent to landfill.

Large elements of the pitch, such as the roots and sand, were already being reused in other pitches. Now a two-year project has developed a process so that the plastic can be repurposed.

Karl Standley, grounds manager at the stadium, says: ‘Extracting the plastic from a hybrid pitch is notoriously difficult, due to its compound and structure. It’s been a long journey, testing and re-testing, but we have finally come up with a solution we are happy with.’

Standley’s team estimates that around 50 plastic park benches could be created from one pitch with scope to develop the recycled plastic into other uses within grassroots football.

One bench has been manufactured so far and has been named in memory of an employee who died last year. Recycling specialists Circular 11 were part of the project.

Founder Connor Winter adds: ‘The full circle pitch has been one of the most technically demanding and exciting projects that we’ve worked on to date, and we’re really proud to be a part of this pioneering project.’

‘It demonstrates that there are huge opportunities to increase plastic recycling when companies have unrelentingly high standards about what happens to the materials they use, as Wembley does, and shows the potential for composite technology to transform previously unrecyclable plastic into a resource.’