UEFA teams up with partners to champion circular economy practices at Paris final

UEFA and PepsiCo are collaborating at this year's Champions League final to pilot circular economy food and beverage practices with the aim of producing zero waste at UEFA finals by 2026.

At this year’s final in Paris, various practices will be tested:

• Menu board with environmental labels
• Reusable EcoCups to provide 100% of the cups for spectators
• PepsiCo PET bottles made with 25-100% recycled PET (rPET)
• Draft dispensers to provide most of the beer
• PepsiCo hospitality areas to reuse glasses for future events
• Aluminium cans and glass bottles separation and recycling procedures
• PepsiCo LED boards to embed 'Please Recycle' messaging
• Uneaten sandwiches and desserts to be donated to local charity
• Unused food that cannot be donated to be collected and used for methanisation
• Water fountains to be installed in the UEFA offices removing need for bottled water

The circular economy practices will be centred around the ‘4Rs framework’ (reduce, reuse, recycle, recover) – outlined in UEFA's sustainability strategy – to collect data which can then define a baseline for improvement action. This will then ultimately contribute to the future publication of UEFA's Guidelines for Circular Economy in food and beverages at football matches.

The number of practices implemented will increase at every subsequent UEFA Champions League final until reaching the objective of zero waste-to-landfill. The implementation is part of the F&B Circularity Project, a collaboration between UEFA and PepsiCo, which aims to support the UEFA Champions League's transition to circular food and beverage practices and has involved 10 clubs participating in this season's competition.

Utilising data gathering and stakeholder consultation to help update guidelines, the project has been rolled out on a pan-European basis, with the likes of Benfica, Inter, Dortmund, Porto, Milan, Man City, Juventus and Leipzig all taking part. It has already led to the creation of a best practices database together with international institutions, the formation of a clubs' consultation group to share knowledge and discuss common challenges, and a feasibility analysis of practical implementation of practices at two pilot stadiums.

This project aligns with UEFA's Circular Economy Policy which, by 2030, aims to embed the 4Rs approach in all operations to minimise the impact of football on the environment and drive resource efficiency and cost savings. UEFA also aims at achieving zero plastic waste and food waste – within UEFA, across UEFA events and collaboratively across European football – by 2030.