Green Football’s Great Save: How Football Fans Can Tackle Kit Waste

Football has a serious waste problem – each year, over 100,000 tonnes of sportswear end up in UK landfills. The good news? Fans, clubs, and communities are stepping up to make a difference.  March 11th to April 2nd, Green Football’s Great Save is rallying people across the game to donate, resell, or repair old football gear instead of letting it go to waste. By keeping kit in play, this campaign is tackling one of football’s biggest sustainability challenges. 

Football, like fashion, is at the mercy of fast-paced consumerism. Clubs are releasing new kits at an unprecedented rate – take Napoli, for example. In the 2021/22 season, they made headlines by releasing 13 different kits, the most ever by a single club in a single season. German powerhouse FC Bayern Munich had just 3 kits between 1991-1995 – today, they’ve released 20 different kits in the past four years alone. 

The Premier League is not exempt from this trend. Over the past 10 years, clubs in England’s top division have collectively released over 600 kits. Traditionally, each club releases a home, away, and third kit, but now we’re seeing an explosion of additional designs – limited-edition drops, collaborations, and one-off kits for special occasions. In 2023, Arsenal partnered with Maharishi to launch a collection that was more about streetwear than sport.  

The production of an average polyester-based shirt releases approximately 5.5kg CO₂ into the atmosphere. If we scale that number up to the annual production of premier league shirts (10 million), we arrive at a staggering 55,000 tonnes of CO2e – equivalent to powering 11,000 UK homes for a year. Moreover, producing polyester is a hugely environmentally taxing process – each polyester shirt requires roughly 3,400 litres of water to produce. Scaled up to the 10 million shirts produced every year, that’s a staggering 34 billion litres of water – enough to fill 13,600 Olympic-sized swimming pools. 

Unfortunately, it’s not just the planet that suffers – it’s also fan’s wallets. With top-tier replica kits retailing between £70-110 and ‘elite’ versions reaching north of £120, football kit has spiralled beyond the reach of the ordinary fan. The constant churn of unaffordable design constructs a glaring cost barrier to participation. Owning your club’s shirt used to be a symbol of identity, loyalty, and community – now it is increasingly a symbol of wealth.  

This incredible – and acutely worrying – overconsumption is a notable departure from the late 90s when the UK’s Football Task Force attempted to restrict clubs to play in one strip for at least two years. The policy evidently, was unsuccessful. However, this regulatory gap presents a unique opportunity for innovative, grassroot-driven initiatives to lead the way towards a more sustainable sporting culture.  

Fans hold the power to flip the script. Green Football’s Great Save should be met with utmost enthusiasm, for the circularity of kit is a missing piece in the modern game. For too long both the environmental and social consequences of football shirt overproduction have slipped under the radar. For clubs – now goliath business entities – selling shirts provides a significant revenue stream. Without a wider understanding of the social and environmental impact of this overproduction, the priorities of the top clubs will not change. Green Football’s Great Save is playing a vital role in not only wide-spread education of the current unsustainable landscape but also paving the way for a more sustainable future.  

If we want football to have a future, we need to change the way we treat kit – and it starts with what’s already in our wardrobes. Instead of letting your old kit gather dust or buying that new streetwear collaboration, head to kitround – the UK’s first marketplace for pre-loved sportswear. By listing or buying pregamed kit, you’re not just saving money – you’re helping build a circular economy that’s better for your community and the planet. Sign up today at kitround and be part of football’s Great Save. Because the best way to support football is to make sure it has a future.