Wanderers and Bolton Wanderers in the Community are ready to support – with your help – Green Football Weekend’s Great Save.
Launched two years ago to encourage football to be more environmentally friendly, Green Football Weekend has promoted a range of activities to encourage clubs and fans to be more environmentally aware and do what they can to help tackle issues such as climate change and waste.
Climate change has contributed to a change in weather patterns which sees 120,000 grassroots football matches in this country cancelled each season due to flooding, while every year an estimated 100,000 tonnes of sportswear – the same as 951 shirts per minute – end up in UK landfill, a producer of methane gas which fuels climate change.
We’re therefore supporting Green Football’s Great Save to stop kit from going to waste with Saturday’s big home game against Stockport County the focal point of our efforts.
Fans coming to the match are being encouraged to bring and donate any old kit they have to allow it to be re-used or re-cycled and avoid burying it in the back of the landfill net.
Whites’ goalkeeper Luke Southwood is doing his bit after dropping off some old Wanderers’ kit to kick-start our collection.
Luke said: “Some of the figures around waste and climate change are staggering, so we should all try and play our part in helping tackle the problem.
“Most people have some old football kit kicking about, so please bring it down and drop it off and see it find a good home, either on the pitch with someone else or as an alternative use to landfill.
“Football can play a leading role in helping to tackle environmental problems and so please join me in supporting Green Football’s Great Save.”
A collection point for donations will be set up at Saturday's game (KO 12.30pm) near the Well-Being Hub adjacent to the ticket office at the Toughsheet Community Stadium. All old kit will then be collected by the Salvation Army to be either sold in their shops, sold to trusted partners in other markets or passed on for re-cycling.
By taking part, you’ll be saving money and supporting people in your community who otherwise might not have the kit to be able to play, as well as helping to protect our world. Keeping your kit in play for just nine more months could reduce its carbon, water, and waste footprint by up to 30%.
We hope you can join in by bringing your old kit to the Stockport game and making a Great Save!
Tell Green Football you’ve done it at greenfootball.org, and you will be entered into a prize draw to win match tickets and free Sky Sports for a year. Get involved today: greenfootball.org, @_greenfootball
Our local Salvation Army shop is situated at the Central Retail Park in Manchester Road, Bolton and one lucky shopper will find an old goalkeeper shirt signed by Luke (pictured above) among the stock on offer from Friday.