Large events like the FIFA World Cup™ can create significant amounts of waste. As an international sports federation and tournament organiser, one of our objectives for the FIFA World Cup™ and FIFA Women’s World Cup™ tournaments is to foster waste reduction while promoting reuse and recycling.
FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023™
The stadiums were the main stages for the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023. 62% of stadium materials were diverted from landfill through contract buy‑back recycling and/or composting efforts.
Beyond the stadium operations, a tournament asset register was used, with a number of the assets that were not retained by FIFA for use at future tournaments transferred to Football Australia and New Zealand Football for onward distribution to state member associations/federations and football venues, as well to other sustainability-related solutions such as donations to charities and/or recycling.
FIFA World Cup 2022™
Tournament organisers (FIFA, FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 LLC and the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy) developed and implemented waste management programmes for the construction of tournament infrastructure and the operation of the event itself to reduce waste generation and increase recycling rates.
On average, 79% of construction waste was diverted from landfill. During tournament time, 77% of the waste from stadium operations was recycled or composted, and 55% of waste from other tournament sites, such as the FIFA Fan Festival™ in Qatar, Tournament Headquarters and the Main Media Centre was recycled. Efforts were also made to encourage recycling through awareness campaigns.