The Kosovo national football team plays its home matches in the “Fadil Vokrri Stadium” previously known as Prishtina City Stadium, which is used mostly for football matches and is the home ground of FC Prishtina.
Within the stadium there are two areas, i.e., the VIP and VERY VIP sections which host around 300 people per match of the national team. Within these areas, catering service offers food and beverages to the guests. Unfortunately, no separate waste collection was applied and all the drinks were served in single use plastic cups. Considering that the national team played around 10 home matches per year, we can estimate a consumption of around 5,000 single use plastic cups.
To avoid waste production, FFK decided to adopt reusable cups in the VIP and VERY VIP sections. For the first time, during the 2022–23 UEFA Nations League C2 match between Kosovo and Cyprus, reusable glasses were used avoiding the generation of waste.
On the cups there was only the logo of GOALS, while banners reporting the main information on the project and on the main benefits of the circular practices was positioned near the beverage stand. Since all the drinks were served by the waiters, there was no risk that cups were left unreturned or stole as memorabilia. In this way, FFK was able to ensure the reusability of the cups.
The environmental benefits can be calculated using the data from LIFE TACKLE. In this case, we can estimate savings for 95 kg of CO2 equivalent and 20 m3 of water equivalent per year.
This particular pilot test was proved to be rather easy to run and the entire practice easy to be implemented. Several different important factors played an important role in its enrolment. Above all, reusable cups recently became a staple principle in organising festivals, concerts and any other kind of mass events. This implies that the visitors are rather accustomed already to this practice. The replicability potential can be even bigger if sponsorship and similar deals are considered. Many multinational companies operating in Europe are looking for potential opportunities to present their products and services as a green one.
