When at capacity, the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) ranks higher than the 20th largest population centre in Australia. 100,000 people descend on the stadium for its biggest sporting events. Picture the rubbish produced by a city of 100,000 people over the course of a day. The sheer size of garbage that is produced at these sporting events is astronomical. The majority of this waste comes in the form of plastic drink and food packaging.
Major sporting events can churn through 750,000 plastic bottles in the space of a few hours. The issue with this is the detrimental impact these plastics have on our environment, considering approximately 91% of all plastic isn't recycled. While the average premier league football match creates 7 tonnes of waste, the 2020 Super Bowl was predicted to create over 36 tonnes, the weight of 20 medium-sized cars.
While advancements have been made, these initiatives are new and far from perfect and have not been rolled out across many stadiums. We must keep a focus on this issue and strive to achieve perfection, pushing for zero-waste initiatives, for the love of the world and the game.
