‘Football Rebooted’ has more than 800 boot collection points spread across various locations in the UK, from primary schools to Premier League clubs including AFC Bournemouth, Brentford and Crystal Palace.
Football Rebooted ambassador, David James MBE, said: “We’re excited to be brought on in the early stages on Sokito’s recycling journey and are keen to see how they progress.
“Essentially, any boots donated to Football Rebooted that are deemed unusable and unable to be re-distributed will go to Sokito. The materials from these boots will then be recycled and tested for new applications as part of a research and development programme with Sokito’s recycling partner.
“This brings an exciting new dimension to our Football Rebooted campaign, which not only has a great environmental impact but is also enabling children to be active, participate and enjoy team sport.”
Since launching its recycled scheme in 2022, Sokito has collected 800+ pairs of worn-out football boots with contributions made through the company’s take back scheme, player investors and ambassadors, University of Nottingham Sports, Kitround, Charity Boots and sports equipment retailer, Greaves.
Scaling-up
“We want to scale our collection programme and invite more partners to join our collection network,” commented Liam McSherry, sustainability projects manager, Sokito. “The more boots we can divert away from landfills and incinerators, and into our recycling programme, the better.”
James Heyes, Utilita’s head of group partnerships, commented on the environmental impact of re-homing and recycling boots: “Since its launch in 2021, the Football Rebooted campaign has collected and reallocated thousands of quality football boots, saving hard-pressed families a small fortune and helping to reduce landfill and carbon emissions.
“To put the environmental benefits into context, our aim is to prevent at least a million pairs of boots from ending up in landfill and saving 13,636 tonnes of carbon – this is the equivalent of turning the energy off in one million medium-sized homes for over a week, or taking nearly 10,000 cars off the road for a year!”
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