As sponsor of the UEFA Champions League, Lay’s has launched a global initiative focused on sustainability. In partnership with the Uefa Foundation and Street Football World, as well as supporting Lionel Messi, Lay’s ambassador, the brand will begin reusing empty snack packages to help create sustainable football stadiums, unite communities and promote positive outcomes for people and also the planet.
Called Lay’s RePlay, the business hopes to open up to five soccer fields by the end of the year. The first will be in Tempesa, South Africa, followed by locations in Russia, Brazil, Turkey and the United Kingdom. With an estimated 3,600 hours of gaming and sports education programs that will benefit more than 16,000 community members in the first year alone, the project will emphasize the involvement of community members and local organizations during all stages of planning, construction and maintenance for each area, with the goal of developing a program that can address the social issues affecting on every community, while promoting safe access to sport.
“Providing people with joy on every slide and on every package is at the heart of our brand. With decades of experience bringing people together through sport, we are proud to offer Lay’s RePlay. More than just a planet-friendly field, we work with local partners to build spaces and programs that can Making a positive impact and change for future generations,” said Sebnim Erim, Vice President of Global Food Marketing at Pepsico.
“We see firsthand how football and sport can be used to improve people’s lives. By working together and supporting Lay’s RePlay, we have an immediate impact on the thousands of people who had neither a place to play nor a chance to develop to become better”, commented Aleksander Ceferin, President of Lay’s RePlay Uefa.
According to the brand, Fields minimize environmental impact, from the materials they are made of to installation, as they are designed to be as environmentally sustainable as possible. In partnership with GreenFields, the global manufacturer of synthetic fields, Lay’s empty packaging will be collected by local waste collection and recycling partners, and receive a second life, as it is crushed and turned into platforms that form the base layer under the lawn, called Ecocept. Both the turf and Ecocept coating will be 100% recyclable at the end of its useful life. In addition to the turf, the Pepsico brand has also committed to adopting a carbon offset strategy that will ensure that all fields deliver a zero carbon footprint over their approximately ten-year useful life.
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