Playing Small, Winning Big: Transforming Sports for the Planet's Future!

Sports are the most popular form of entertainment across the world. The constant pump of adrenaline and action, the bliss and joy of winning, and the heart and passion of teamwork - sports is life for so many people around the world. Whether watching your favourite team with your family on the big screen, or going to practice everyday, with the dream of being on that very screen. Sport encourages creativity, skill, dedication, commitment to the game, and to life as a whole!! I love playing lots of different sports, and it is always the highlight of my day. I am a badminton and kickboxing player, and really enjoy playing and watching football, basketball and cricket too with my friends!!

I've always wondered - sport embodies so many beautiful qualities in life, and is extremely fun while helping you learn and grow. But so many resources are used from our planet every day. The sports industry generates significant plastic waste, with major events producing up to 750,000 plastic bottles, cups, and wrappers each.

A single major event, like the 2018 FIFA World Cup, (which my favourite team France won!) generated 200,000 tonnes of waste. Common waste includes single-use bottles, packaging, and microplastics from synthetic turf. An average NBA game produces 10-15 tonnes of waste alone. That means, the total waste generated in arenas per season is estimated to be a whopping 18,900 tonnes!! To put into context, that amount of waste weighs as much as 3000+ African Elephants. A single IPL (Indian Premier League) cricket match in 2023 emitted around 10,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide, which is equivalent to the carbon emissions of over 2 million homes.

Sports does have a massive carbon footprint and emission count, depleting a lot of the planet's valuable resources, and it is only growing, due to increased popularity and influence in food, clothing and apparel, equipment and maintenance. But, through these small things we can do in our daily lives, we can work towards making sports more healthy and sustainable for our planet and all its living beings!!

Firstly, we can use sustainable equipment and sporting apparel, while repairing gear to ensure less wastage. We can prioritize repairing old or damaged gear like helmets, guards with the help of organizations like Patagonia and their "Worn Wear" service to repair sports apparel. This promotes conservation, valuing your equipment, taking care of it, and also learning to fix things instead of discarding them. We can also purchase secondhand or used goods or equipment, and trade gear with your friends to extend the life of these products. We can also opt for brands using recycled materials (like polyester from plastic bottles) or natural materials (organic cotton, hemp, bamboo). We must also avoid fast fashion jerseys and buying new kits each year, as wearing a kit for nine months longer can reduce its environmental impact by 20-30%!

Single-use plastic bottles and conatiners are a huge part of waste generated during sports. One small thing we can ensure to do every time we go for practice, training or workout is carry our own bottle instead of purchasing single-use plastic bottles. These are usually larger quantity, helping us stay hydrated for longer, and significantly reduce the impact to the planet. We can also carry metal boxes to store any post-training snacks or fruits, instead of getting them in a plastic bag or box.

Travel is a huge contributor to carbon emissions during sports, as travelling to sports venues, and gyms for daily training consumes a lot of energy and power, depleteting Mother Earth of valuable resources. We can cycle or walk to our gym to minimize emissions and provide a nice warm-up before workout, and localize training by using areas like our society's parks and pathways to cycle, run, and exercise. Plogging is a very effective, eco-friendly fitness activity. It combines jogging, walking, or running with picking up litter. This is such an amazinge technique to not only build immense endurance and stamina by going on a run with your friends, but help clean up your society, your city, and do your bit to help preserve the ecosystem and all its living beings!!

This was one of my favourite articles, and I really enjoyed because sports are an integral part of life for billions of people around the world - they foster discipline, teamwork, grit and the value of never giving up, and giving your best always! Through these small acts, we can contribute to a cleaner, greener and healthier tomorrow, where Mother Earth and all its living beings will live in harmony and always shine bright. And future generations will embody this dedication and perseverance in every part of their lives!!