Eco-Friendly Gear Donation — Help Kids & the Planet

Each year, thousands of soccer balls, cleats, and uniforms end up in landfills, contributing to unnecessary waste. Through our Eco-Friendly Gear Donation Program, you can recycle your gently used soccer gear and give it a second life in the hands of a child who dreams of playing the beautiful game.

What You Can Donate:

• Soccer Balls
• Cleats & Shoes
• Uniforms & Jerseys
• Shin Guards & Goalkeeper Gloves
• Training Equipment

All donated items should be gently used and in good condition, ensuring that they can be repurposed for children around the world.

Why Donate?

• Reduce Waste: Keep gear out of landfills by repurposing it for children in need.
• Help the Environment: Promote sustainability through responsible recycling.
• Empower Youth: Your donation equips children with the gear they need to play, learn, and grow.

Sustainable Soccer Initiatives — Play Green, Live Green

Our commitment to sustainability goes beyond recycling gear. Through our Sustainable Soccer Initiatives, we:

• Host Community Gear Drives: Collect and repurpose equipment to reduce waste.
• Support Global Distribution: Send recycled gear to 20 countries across 6 continents.
• Promote Eco-Conscious Play: Educate communities on the importance of sustainability in sports.
• Partner with Green Organizations: Work alongside environmental nonprofits to expand our impact.

Soccer Gear Recycling Facts

• By recycling just one soccer ball, you prevent 2.5 lbs of rubber and plastic from ending up in a landfill.
• One pair of recycled soccer cleats prevents nearly 1 pound of synthetic materials—including rubber, leather, and plastics—from contributing to landfill waste.
• Recycling 10 soccer uniforms saves about 15,000 gallons of water, which would have been used in the production of new textiles.
• An average soccer net is made from 30 feet of nylon, which takes 30–40 years to decompose in a landfill. Repurposing it helps reduce long-term plastic pollution.
• One soccer jersey contains the equivalent of 8 plastic water bottles worth of polyester. Recycling it keeps microplastics out of our oceans.
• Over 300 million soccer balls are produced every year. If just 1% were recycled, it would prevent 750,000 pounds of waste annually.
• The global sports gear industry produces nearly 5 million tons of waste annually. By recycling and repurposing equipment, we can significantly reduce this environmental footprint.
• Textile waste from sports uniforms accounts for a significant portion of landfill content. Repurposing soccer gear helps cut down on this waste, supporting sustainable sports.

A Global Clothing Recycling Crisis

This is one of the biggest landfills. This is in Chile, and it can now be seen from space. It’s mostly also made up of unused and unsold clothing. More than 66,000 tons of clothes reside at the massive landfill which is now visible from Space thanks to high- resolution satellite images. Due to all the waste in the Atacama landfill, the United Nations has declared the site as “an environmental and social emergency“ for the planet.”

When you throw away clothing like soccer uniforms, it ends up in a landfill, and in landfill, it takes hundreds of years to degrade. It’s no different than your plastic packaging, but it does give trashy dressing a whole new meaning.

OK, so how did we all get here?
We buy three times as many clothes as we did in 1980 and wear them for half as long. Your grandmother would have mended her clothes, but now three out of five end up in landfill within the first year of purchase. It changed within one generation, and it’s set to increase by 62 percent by 2030.