The Ladies European Tour’s (LET) new Aramco Team Series is proving its green credentials on and off the fairways by recycling plastic waste accrued at its four tournament weekends and transforming it into sustainable clothing for its on-site teams.
The innovative new tournament is showing that it is not just thinking big in how it can help grow women’s golf and inspire its next generation of players, but also in how it can ensure zero net emissions from event to event and eliminate any carbon emissions generated by hosting the four mega-LET weekends in four different locations.
One of the ways that is being done is through a partnership between the tournament and sustainable fashion company, REBORN.
Born out of London, REBORN gathers used plastics – from plastic bags to golf tees, and everything in-between – and use their own shredding device to whittle the waste material down into small black pellets.
With these pellets, they then manufacture almost any type of garment: from t-shirts and polo-shirts, to jackets, trousers and hats.
In working with the Aramco Team Series, the REBORN team – led by founder Zak Johnson – know before each event what plastics are expected to be used in what amounts over the course of the weekend, from on-course water bottles to supplier packaging. With that, they then plan for the next event on the series, calculating exactly how many different clothing items they will be able to produce.
In this case, at the Aramco Team Series – Sotogrande, currently taking place on the south Spanish coast, just over a month after the London leg.
As a result, the event’s ground support staff and amateurs playing in the Aramco Team Series’ innovative new format are decked out in no less than 1,200 polo-shirts all made using plastic waste gathered in London just four weeks ago – 19,200 bottles (i.e. 307kgs) plastic, to be precise!
“That might seem like a lot to turnaround in such a tight space of time but that’s what we do, so we’ve been more than capable of making it happen,” said Johnson, whose goal with REBORN is simple: to work towards a world where the clothes you love to wear protect the world you love.
All of the plastic collected at the Aramco Team Series – London has been mitigated in the tournament clothing on-site staff are wearing in Sotogrande this week.”
He continued: “The way we are going just now, the planet and our situation is not going to be great in as little as 10-15 years. Taking steps like this to recycle plastics wherever and however we can is vitally important to what will come next for us, and I feel with REBORN we’re very much taking on an industry – that of clothing, from merchandise to corporate clothing and staff outfits.
“To have the Aramco Team Series see that and look to mitigate that and many other routes to damaging the environment is great to see, so it’s our pleasure to be working with them on this exciting new era in women’s golf.”
The Aramco Team Series – Sotogrande will be followed by the Aramco Team Series – New York (October 14 to 16) and Aramco Team Series – Jeddah (November 10 to 12), all of which will see event staff kitted-out in REBORN clothing.
Ahmed Al-Subaey, Vice-President of Marketing, Sales and Supply Planning at Aramco, said: “We have been impressed by what REBORN has been doing over the last few years. It is very much in sync with our own programs, which aim to reduce waste, reuse materials and identify new and more efficient ways to manage resources. Along with reducing emissions and advancing low-carbon energy solutions, we believe this approach is essential for a more sustainable future. Our partnership with REBORN, for the Aramco Team Series, is yet another example of this.”
For more information, visit https://aramcoteamseries.com/
