Approximately 80% of waste from FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 stadiums have been recycled.

Around 80% of all waste from the World Cup tournament has successfully been recycled from all eight stadiums, organisers revealed.

Qatar made significant efforts to reduce waste and recycle used materials as part of its commitment to hosting a sustainable FIFA World Cup throughout its biggest football tournament of all time.

More than 2,000 tonnes of waste were recycled or composted after 64 matches. This included plastic, metal, and all materials that could be re-used in the future.

“We are proud to announce that approximately 80% of waste from stadiums has been recycled. This is a massive achievement that has been delivered thanks to detailed planning and unwavering commitment from tournament organisers and national stakeholders,” said Bodour Al Meer, the SC’s Sustainability Executive Director.

The FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, FIFA, and the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC) implemented a comprehensive programme that included a number of initiatives before and during the tournament.

This involved the use of compostable food packaging, promoting waste separation among fans, and setting up sorting stations at each of the eight stadiums.

“I would like to thank all of our partners, most notably APEX Waste Solutions and Management Company, whose teams manually separated all the waste in each of our stadiums, before distributing it to local recyclers of plastic, cardboard, compost, metal, glass and electronic waste,” added Al Meer.

Qatar’s FIFA Sustainability Strategy places a strong emphasis on waste reduction and recycling, particularly plastics. The tournament’s organisers were successful in doing so by switching out plastic for reusable and compostable materials.

The Gulf nation made a concerted effort to remove unavoidable plastics from waste streams so they could be recycled.

“As a Qatari company, we are proud to have been a part of ensuring that Qatar 2022 left behind a sustainable legacy for future generations,” said Nasser Al Khalaf, CEO, APEX Waste Solutions and Management Company.

“Through our work with the SC, we were able to ensure that waste generated at stadiums was segregated on site before being taken to any recycling facility, which increased the recycling rate of our project.”

Before the competition, organisers spoke with spectators to encourage them to recycle as much as they could. Additionally, there were a number of public activities throughout Qatar 2022 that promoted the use of recycling bins at tournament locations.

“The success of this initiative during the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 will certainly create a long last legacy where recycling plays an integral part in the way waste is managed in Qatar,” the SC said on their website.