With Earth Day coming up, we thought we'd look into a few ways our fantastic sporting community at Taroona FC can help to be more earth-conscious in our daily practices in and around the Club.
Reduce Plastic Pollution
Plastic’s chemical composition makes it unable to fully decompose, causing pollution to build up and creating problems for our planet and human health.
We can help by:
1. Using a re-usable drink bottle instead of buying bottled water on game day and at trainings. Many football clubs around the world are ditching single-use plastic bottled water products. Players and supporters attending Kelvedon Park are always welcome to refill water bottles at the Kiosk, or even just ask for a cup of water as opposed to buying bottled water.
2. Requesting your hot drink in a mug at the Kiosk instead of a take-away cup reduces more single-use waste. Visitors are also encouraged to bring along a keep-cup for any hot drinks we make at the Kiosk.
3. Purchasing powdered sports drink instead of the bottled versions helps to cut down on plastic waste. By utilising your regular drink bottle and mixing a powdered version of Powerade, Gatorade, or other electrolyte powder pre-game, you can also save a few dollars!
Reusing Gear & Equipment
We can help by:
1. Adding old (but decent) gear to the donation drawers at Kelvedon. We have a fantastic donation initiative at the Kelvedon Clubrooms (the donation drawers are located at the beginning of the change rooms' area entrance). Simply leave any items you no longer have use for, but please make sure they are clean, are fit for use by others, and are placed in the appropriately labelled drawer. Perhaps you have a young player who has grown out of their boots, or maybe you have a few extra pairs of shin guards lying around the house. Donate these items into our donation drawers! On the flip side - before heading out to purchase new items for yourself, take a peek into the donation drawers to see if there's anything you can take!
2. Updating your own gear out of functional needs, not fashion needs. It can be tempting to update your football boots each season when a new colour way is released. We're not suggesting that you wrap your split boots with copious amounts of strapping tape, but if they're still functioning fine then why get rid of them?
3. Attempting to repair equipment before replacing it. There's usually a way to fix a tattered net or repair other items so they last another season before heading to the tip. Additionally, taking care of Taroona FC's sporting equipment by using it respectfully and packing it away and storing it correctly will always prolong it's lifespan.
Recycling Old Clothes & Textiles
Clothing, shoes, fabric, and other textiles should never be put in your household recycling bin. We know that a few seasons of football can force you to accumulate a whole bunch of grass-stained, hole-y sock, for example. These are the types of clothing items you can't donate, and should probably replace - so here's a number of ways to recycle your old clothing and textiles instead of throwing them away.
1. Upparel: Pack up a box and organise a collection from the comfort of your own home! Recycling costs start from $25, which will allow you to send and recycle 10kg of textiles in one box.
2. H&M: You can drop off any unwanted textiles (any brand and in any condition) to the Hobart H&M store (located at 51 Murray St). Simply hand in your bag of old clothes at the cash desk and receive a thank you voucher to use towards your next purchase.
3. TreadLightly: TreadLightly is an initiative operated by the Australian Sporting Goods Association that allows you to recycle your old shoes and divert hundreds of tonnes from landfill at the same time. They accept all types of footwear - thongs, trainers, sneakers and football boots! There's a number of collection centres all over Hobart and surrounds, including rebel Rosny, The Athlete's Foot Hobart, Hype DC Hobart, Glue Hobart, Platypus Hobart, Platypus Eastlands, and Intersport Kingston.
We hope that these suggestions and recommendations make a positive difference in our daily sporting habits. The official Earth Day slogan for 2023 is #InvestInOurPlanet, and while we can make financial investments by making more mindful purchase decisions, we can also skew our actions and practices and invest our time and efforts into making the planet a better place to live and play.