Identifying opportunities and tackling the challenges in environmental sustainability within the sports and play construction industry is central to SAPCA’s strategy.
As part of this, SAPCA plans to create an End-of-Life Synthetic Turf Treatment Protocol that will allow the industry and the UK sports governing bodies to formulate policies for the responsible disposal of synthetic sports surfaces and pitch systems.
As the first step in creating the new protocol, SAPCA is now inviting companies and organisations to submit their proposals for two work packages. These are:
• To create a protocol for waste operators providing end-of-life synthetic turf sports surfacing treatment.
• To run and maintain a verification process of operators and their sites.
The move to create the protocol is supported by the Football Foundation and Sport England, alongside other sports governing bodies.
Richard Shaw, CEO of SAPCA, said: “The recycling of artificial turf is currently a confused landscape across the UK. At the same time, it is pressing for the industry to solve the problem to give customers, governing bodies and regulators confidence that we are a trustworthy industry and capable of self-regulation.
“This tender opportunity is a chance for the industry to show leadership and rally around an approved list of recyclers that we can demonstrate are doing things correctly.”
For more details on the packages and requirements, see the Request for Proposals document by clicking here.
The deadline for submitting proposals is 3.11.2025.
Image: pexels.com/Fabricio Trujillo