Hello, welcome back to my blog! As you may recall, last week’s post served as the kick-off point for the start of my blogging journey. Hence, it’s only natural that we proceed to talk about the half-time period, which is the next most significant time phase.
For those unfamiliar with the sport, the half-time interval allows both teams the opportunity to rest and prepare for the second half. The same applies to the fans too. But rather than drinking isotonic drinks, they’ll most likely be chugging down alcoholic drinks instead. That drinking culture is especially prevalent in England as evidently shown at the Tottenham Stadium, where an estimated 65,000 pints of beer[1] is sold during this 15-minute window.
With that much food and drinks served on matchdays, there’ll inevitably be waste generated from the fans. To minimise wastage, clubs can either adopt a precautionary or reactionary approach. Precautionary measures will eliminate the problem right from the start, and it’s something that many Premier League clubs have done already. Concerning plastic waste, these clubs have switched to biodegradable food wrappers or have stopped using single-use plastic cups.
West Ham FC is one of such clubs, but they do recognise that this no-plastic policy will not solve the resulting food waste from fans. Hence, they’ve added a reactionary measure by installing an anaerobic digestion machine at London Stadium[2], the club’s home ground.
The machine works by anaerobically digest food waste to produce by-products such as biomethane, fertiliser, and recyclable water[3]. These can then be in turn used for various everyday activities, like farming and lavatory usage for example. Thus, the club managed to turn a problem into a positive through their handling of food waste.
While it’s great to see clubs recycling food waste, I can’t help but wonder if it would’ve been better to prevent food wastage from the very beginning. This would have saved the time and effort needed to convert the remains into useable by-products.
To accomplish that, there needs to be a change in eating habits, and that’s where education comes into play. Clubs have already been raising awareness about plastic waste on top of their plastic-free initiatives, so why not food waste too? I’ll leave this question to you the readers, and I hope to see you all next week!
References:
[1] Discovery UK. (2020, June 7). Tottenham Hotspur Stadium Has Its Own Brewery And Makes 23K Pints Per Match | Richard Hammond’s Big [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5Hj_fE6MTw
[2] West Ham United. Environment. (n.d.). Retrieved September 06, 2020, from https://www.whufc.com/community/environment
[3] iugis. Sustainable Food Waste Solutions. (n.d.). Retrieved August 21, 2020, from https://iugis.com/food-waste-solutions
Hi Yu Xun! It is very refreshing to read your blog as we can see sports from an environmental perspective (:
As you mentioned in this post, there is a need for education to change people’s eating habit so as to reduce food waste. However, I feel like eating food while watching the games is part of the fun ): So, is there any concrete solution to change the perception and eating habit of the people while still not compromising with enjoyment in eating while watching the games?
Hi Sherry!
When I mentioned education, I was thinking along the lines of raising the importance of reducing food wastage. Cause in the case of single-use plastics, the clubs’ decision to phase them out was accepted as fans themselves knew about the severity of plastic waste. Hence I was thinking of having informational posters at the stalls such that the fans themselves know the scale of their food wastage, and are spurred to only order what they can finish eating instead of buying on a whim.
Great answer to Sherry’s question ! Really like this idea.