South Africa loves the game of football. Sure, we like rugby and cricket more, but that’s usually because we stand a chance at actually winning. Even so, football is still a favourite pastime of young South Africans. Because of this, Lay’s donated a football pitch to Tembisa last year, made out of around three million Lay’s chips packets. And it’ll be recycled again once the pitch is too rough to keep playing.
A year later and the pitch is still in perfect condition. It’ll stay that way for another nine years before being completely recycled again. The Tembisa pitch will be joined by four others in the coming months. The company is planning to create an additional three pitches in 2023.
Re-usable and recyclable
Lay’s launched its Lay’s RePlay initiative last year, creating completely artificial (and recyclable) turf out of around three million Lay’s chip packets. The idea was to give the community a place to create “Safe-Hubs” for the at-risk youth in an area. Since then, it’s received a great deal of community engagement and has played host to plenty of matches since its inception.
The owner of Lay’s, PepsiCo, has apparently been surprised at the amount of engagement the pitch has seen. The company expected around 500 kids to participate. This has grown to 1,000 kids monthly, on average. So far, the pitch has benefitted around 4,000 kids, and the numbers are steadily growing. Not bad for a facility made from chip packets.
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The three million chip packets used only make up about a third of the total materials used. The packets are turned into rubberized pellets, which are used as a shock absorbing layer called Ecopet. Artificial grass is placed over the Ecopet. Both layers are completely recyclable and can be used again in the future. Considering this is for a five-a-side pitch, we wonder how many packets would be needed to get a full-size pitch constructed.
There are three other Lay’s RePlay pitches around the world. You’d find one each in the UK, Brazil, and Italy. Four more are on the way – the U.S, Mexico, Turkey, and Egypt and will each receive their own RePlay pitches in due course. Hopefully, Lay’s continues the initiative.
Source: Business Insider