Danone and RECOUP partner to promote PET recycling

The French food company Danone and U.K.-based RECOUP, a member based nonprofit organisation working to promote plastics recycling, have been working together to inspire school children to recycle more plastic bottles through the Danone Nations Cup Football tournament.  

Danone sponsors the English Schools’ Football Association (ESFA) tournament to run the ESFA Danone Nations Cup, which is for children under the age of 11. Three thousand primary schools take part in the event, with the winning team in the inter-association tournament representing England at the Danone Nations Cup World Final (an international football tournament involving 2.5 million children from 32 countries).

The tournament aims to encourage kids to have a healthy and active lifestyle and to follow in the footsteps of great sportsmen, such as the tournament’s global ambassador, Zinedine Zidane. Danone is taking this one step further, educating the children that their plastic water bottles also are a resource to be reused. Through RECOUP Danone has been showing the children what recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles can be transformed into.

Using the voting bin concept, RECOUP was able to engage with the players at the regional event in Bath and the National Final at Leicester City FC’s King Power Stadium by asking a football related question to kick off the learning process. Graphic displays and top trump cards showing the recycling journey from water bottle to football shirt helped to drive the message home, RECOUP says.

Anne Hitch, RECOUP communications manager, says it “has been fascinating talking to so many young people and to tap into their passion for sport to inspire a passion for recycling.” She adds, “The idea that a plastic bottle can be recycled into a football shirt really fascinates.”

The plastic bottles collected from the tournament were sent for recycling.  The players at the National Finals also were supplied with Nike football kits made from recycled PET to wear at the event.

Charlotte Broos, Danone corporate social responsibility manager, says, “We wanted to take the opportunity of the players’ passion for football to educate them in a fun way about healthy eating, healthy hydration and taking care of the environment. We want to encourage them to recycle their plastic bottles correctly by demonstrating recycled plastic can be used as a resource to produce new items, for example football shirts. RECOUP, with their vast expertise on plastics recycling, were the perfect partner to deliver this and we’re looking forward to seeing how we can take the collaboration further next season.”