Qatar’s commitment to hosting a sustainable FIFA World Cup included efforts to minimize waste and recycle used materials throughout the tournament. After hosting 64 matches, tournament organizers have announced that recycling more than 2,000 tonnes of waste has been completed.

“Approximately 80% of waste from stadiums has been recycled. This achievement has been delivered due to detailed planning and unwavering commitment from tournament organizers and national stakeholders”, Eng. Bodour Al Meer, the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC) Sustainability Executive Director, said in a press statement.

“I would like to thank APEX Waste Solutions and Management Company, whose teams manually separated all the waste in each of our stadiums, before distributing it to local recyclers of plastic, cardboard, compost, metal, glass and electronic waste,” added Al Meer.

Several initiatives were implemented pre and post-tournament, including compostable food packaging, encouraging fans to segregate waste, and placing sorting facilities at all eight stadiums, ensuring sustainability was a key pillar throughout the tournament.

“Through our work with the SC, we were able to ensure that waste generated at stadiums was segregated on site before being taken to any recycling facility, which increased the recycling rate of our project”, Nasser Al Khalaf, CEO, APEX Waste Solutions and Management Company said.

Tournament organizers replaced plastic with compostable and reusable alternatives. For unavoidable plastics, Qatar 2022 worked to remove them from the waste streams so that they can be recycled.

In addition to efforts by the team, several public activations throughout Qatar 2022 encouraged the uptake of recycling bins at tournament sites and played a role in this milestone.