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By 2025, Friesland wants to be Europe’s most circular region – a widely supported ambition in the province in the north of the Netherlands. The initiative comes from the network organization Samen Circulair, which chooses sports as the stage to deliver their message. High ambitions in circularity and sports, that’s a combination Act Sports gladly supports. One of the dreams: get sc Heerenveen to play football on a pitch made from recycled pitches.
Wanted: closed loops
Climate change, ever-growing waste streams, and imminent resource shortages are topics that have been all over the news for years. And the conclusion is always the same: we need to get rid of our linear economy and accelerate towards a circular economy. “The North of the Netherlands wants to lead the way”, says Jan Willem Sietsma, quartermaster of Samen Circulair. “With like-minded companies, knowledge institutions, governments and other parties, we’ll look for solutions to keep materials in the loop value for as long as possible, and at their highest value.”
Partners in circularity
One of the founding partners of Samen Circulair is Act Sports, the sports brand of Beaulieu International Group. “As an industrial group, we want to maximally reduce our environmental footprint by 2030”, clarifies Friso van den Berg, Commercial Director at Act Sports. “That includes reducing our greenhouse gas emissions by 42% compared to 2021, and aiming for at least 50% of recycled or renewable materials in our product solutions. No wonder we fully endorse the ambitious objectives defined by Samen Circulair.”
“Within Samen Circulair, we look forward to teaming up with companies that recycle plastics and help to turn them into new raw materials. Sharing knowledge, motivating, innovating, and making each other stronger is what we’re aiming for.”
Sports connect
Besides being an ambassador of circular solutions, Act Sports is mainly known for its innovative sports turf systems for sports like hockey, rugby, padel and … football. Friso van den Berg: “We commercialize over 60 different sports turf systems for football, many of which have been certified by FIFA. In other words, we set the bar high for ourselves, and we can already look back on over 250 FIFA-certified projects worldwide. In the long run, however, we’d love to add a missing piece to the puzzle: a system that’s entirely made from recycled football pitches. It would be a great success if one day we could let Dutch top league club sc Heerenveen play on such a pitch within Samen Circulair.”
