A football field made out of plastic Budweiser cups

The FIFA World Cup might be over, but the game is still on! Thanks to an unusual recycling campaign, from now on football players in Sochi, Russia, can play on plastic as well as on grass. As the official sponsor of the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, the US beer brand Budweiser not only gave fans a special experience by providing them with bright red cups during the tournament, they also made sure these cups were put to good use once the tournament was over.

Whilst some fans took the cups home as souvenirs, others disposed of them in the stadiums. Thanks to the latter, after the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia was over, more than 50,000 Budweiser Red Light cups were collected in the participating arenas for an unusual purpose: to create a wear-resistant, red and white surface coating for a football field that so far is truly one of a kind. The Budweiser ReCup Arena’s playing field is 65 by 42 metres – smaller than the 105 by 68 metres required for standard fields for international matches yet still large enough to delight professionals and amateurs alike.

Environmental protection plays an important role for brewing company Anheuser-Busch in other respects, too. By 2025, the company aims to brew all bottled beers using renewable electricity. In the USA and Great Britain, they have already implemented this sustainability strategy – the company informs their consumers by printing “100% renewable electricity” on their packaging labels.