You may have seen news recently announcing Circular Solutions’ partnership with the Green Sports Alliance (GSA) and its Foundation. GSA harnesses the power of sports, music, and entertainment to drive environmental change. This new partnership is a game changer for recycling.

Everybody Wins

Green Sports Alliance’s Play to Zero platform is a leadership recognition platform and sustainability performance toolkit for GSA Members that guides and celebrates progress towards a net zero energy, net zero water, zero waste, and a more resilient future.

Play to Zero is helping collegiate and professional teams, major venues, nonprofits, and corporations achieve their goals, and we want to encourage more organizations to participate. So, CS is donating 10 percent of all new engagements with GSA-member clients to the Green Sports Alliance Foundation, directly supporting the foundation’s mission to catalyze environmental progress across the sports and entertainment world.

Verification Builds Trust

Trust takes more than good intentions. Many venues are doing great work to collect recyclable materials to prevent them ending up in landfills or incineration. The problem is, often items organizations think they’re recycling actually don’t make it all the way through the process to create new bottles and cans, for example, from used ones.

That’s where Circular Solutions comes in. Our team is using tech-driven solutions to help venues verify their efforts at every step in the process—from the location to the hauler to the material recovery facility—so they can substantiate their results and report their real metrics that can’t be manipulated. In our experience, tools and technology are providing the edge organizations need to dispel doubt and show the effectiveness of their efforts with proven data that is beyond reproach. Often organizations can reduce their waste management costs in the process.

A Sporting Chance

Recycling at sports and entertainment venues is not just about managing trash—it’s about reducing environmental impact, meeting stakeholder and regulatory expectations, and reinforcing their role as a community leader.

This new partnership and our proprietary technology is giving recycling a sporting chance–to make sure the values central to sports, including honor and fairness, truth and transparency, are also giving recycling a fighting chance to succeed, and fans a chance to make a difference for the environment.

When I spoke recently (or “a few weeks ago”) at the 2^nd World Recycling Convention in Rome, I found that no matter where we live in the world, we are all concerned with caring for the planet. Big events must become more sustainable. It’s do-able, but the reality is the larger the event, the more difficult the task.

I shared CSA’s experience with several major events, including the Brazil World Cup in 2014 and 2024 NCAA Final Four men’s and women’s tournaments. Though the sporting events are different, the principles that make them more environmentally friendly are the same.

Set Goals well in advance. 36 months is not too far out. Think about goals for the property, recycling partners like the hauler and the material recovery facility (MRF), and the local community. Make sure you’re on the same page and establish a strong collaboration.

Develop a Strategy that provides value to all your partners in the supply chain. Communicate it and obtain commitment from all the parties involved in the process.

Collaborative Execution: Before the Event. Execution can start as early as 12 months before the event happens as you test the supply chain and look for weakness within it. Create alternative solutions to fill the gaps in your plan, if needed. Be sure the property has the right infrastructure–both for event guests and behind the scenes. Be sure the staff is trained on how to support the recycling effort and communicate to attendees with clear signage.

…and After. The hauler picks up recyclable material and delivers it to the MRF, who processes and bales it and delivers it to the reprocessing plant and ultimately the manufacturer who turns creates new products or packaging.

Ensure your Event Measures Up. Your recycling data must be accurate, which means coordinating with every level of the supply chain. Test your measurement and obtain 3^rd party review of the methodology. Verification is critical since not all plastic (PET) that goes into a recycling bin makes it all the way through the process. With solid, verified information, communicate the event’s sustainability in a way that is clear and aligned with each level of the supply chain.

Build on your Success. With the solid foundation you’ve created for a greener event, you can build on your success for future events, at minimal cost, since the hard work has already been done.

Whether it’s a concert, a golf tournament or a soccer match, recycling at scale is a team sport. If you have a big event in the works, I’d love to connect with you and see how the CSA team can help make your event cleaner and greener–for your business and the planet.

The French government has pledged to make these Olympic Games “the most responsible and sustainable games in history.” Using renewable energy from wind and solar farms, the goal is to half the carbon emissions of previous games. No small feat.

I was privileged to help establish circular economy solutions for the London Summer Olympic Games in 2012, where we took recyclable plastic materials and repurposed them into useful merchandise that could be branded.

We are already seeing changes at this year’s games. Bedframes in the athletes’ dorms are made of cardboard which can be recycled afterwards, mattresses are being made of recycled materials, and the medal podiums and 11,000 bleacher seats have been made from recycled materials like shampoo bottles and bottle caps. There is more information here about the Paris Olympic Games’ sustainability plans.

I was in Paris for 10 days in June and saw preparations in action for the influx of people attending the Games. Clear signage was being installed highlighting bright yellow bins for recycling empty containers made of plastic, cardboard and metal such as aluminum cans. I visited the Coca Cola Food Fest—a giant food court—where restaurants will be serving beverages in glass and reusable cups.

With 10,500 athletes and more than 600,000 spectators expected to attend, there will certainly be challenges. The logistics required to accommodate mountains of waste from attendees and other visitors to the city have the potential to be a nightmare. Plus, it’s tough to measure efforts at events of this magnitude…but it can be done. For example,

• At the NCAA 2024 Final Four Men’s and Women’s Championships, nearly 250,000 pounds of bottles and aluminum cans were recycled and upcycled to food grade containers.
• At the 2024 NASCAR Coca Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, more than 185,000 bottles and cans were collected and recycled.

In the next couple of weeks, I’ll be watching the competition, of course. And I’ll also be listening to commentators to hear how much attention they are giving to sustainability—whether to current efforts, recycling or about our changing climate.

Summer Games aside, there are big opportunities every day to create greater sustainability. In fact, I’m speaking about that very subject—Making Big Events Environmentally Friendly—at the World Recycling Conference in Rome in October. I hope to see you there and would love to hear your thoughts about this important topic.

In the meantime, let the Games begin!