In northwest London stands Wembley Stadium, a behemoth of UK athletics that sports a capacity of some 90,000. Footballers and Olympians, athletes from the world over, have for a century offered up their blood, sweat, and tears to the famed field and its namesake predecessor.

Of course, as a typical football stadium of today, the pitch at Wembley contains elements beyond those found in nature – human or otherwise – and is a hybrid of grass and synthetic plastics. And where there are plastics, there are questions of recyclability. It’s only fair: while footballers have long been giving the proverbial 110% to the pitch, the least it could do in return is shoot for 100.

In the name of sustainability in sports, the stadium team has reportedly developed a process that would make the field 100% recyclable, allowing for the extraction and repurposing of its plastic components, thereby keeping old football pitches out of landfills.

The team are working together with UK recycler Circular 11, who specialises in turning plastics waste into products such as picnic tables, benches, and planters. Having already created a prototype bench, the stadium team estimates that around 50 could be made from a single pitch. Fifty is nice…how about 90,000?