Back of the (sustainable) net: Budweiser unveils recycled football pitch

If you like football and you like sustainability, you might just like this. Budweiser, purveyors of that most American of golden-hued, easily-drinkable, barbecue-friendly beers, has unveiled an “innovative, wear-resistant coloured coating” for a football pitch made entirely from recycled Budweiser cups.

Of the three million or so specially-made cups that found themselves full to the city brim with cold, crisp, refreshing lager at last summer’s Russia-hosted World Cup, 50,000 or so of them have been used to produce a rather striking pitch, located in the seaside city of Sochi.

Today sees the opening of the Budweiser ReCup Arena, which we’re pretty certain features the first pitch to replace good old fashioned grass with the melted and reused remnants of pint pots.

It is another chapter in the brewer’s long-term sustainability story. The St. Louis-born brand recently pledged to ensure that by 2025, every single one of the 11 billion bottles of beer they produce each year will be powered by renewable electricity by 2025.

While we’re not entirely sure if other stadia will follow suit, we do have to commend its commitment to doing something more interesting with commemorative plastic cups than bunging them in the back of the kitchen cupboard, where they tend to sit unused until the day the sight of a semi-frosted beaker bearing a Pleasurewood Hills logo fills you with such sadness that you’re forced to chuck it in the bin.