Finnish Basketball Team “Tapiola Honka” is one of the pilot club to take part in the joint sustainable project between the NOC of Finland and Sitra, an independent public foundation aiming at promoting stable and balanced development in the country.

The goal of this initiative is to develop environmentally wise everyday operations in sport clubs, such as recycling of clothes and gears, carpooling, organising small tournaments, arranging environmentally friendly snacks, etc.

One of the project test took place during a basketball tournament organised by the Finnish Team on 24-25 August in the school “Tapiolan Koulu” in Espoo, close to Helsinki, where a “smart” system of sorting and recycling waste was experienced.

The practical tests led to several insights, such as: to separate and label clearly the litter boxes; to figure where people move and need to throw away garbage; to arrange the proper equipment needed for sorting but also consider in which ways wasting can be reduced.

“We did not need to waste garbage bags. Paper and plastic waste was taken to the collection point near the school”, stated Team Manager Milla Suviranta, and commented on how the initiative was welcomed positively: “It worked well. Young people experienced it and it was nice to see how this kind of action was carried out”.

She stressed the fact that kids have to be well educated on how to collect garbage in different containers and concluded saying: “This good behaviour is just the beginning and we have to improve it as a sports club”.

With this kind of project, the NOC of Finland is trying to motivate sport clubs to find environmentally sound solutions by highlighting the additional advantages besides the envivonmental benefit. For example recycling gears and clothes or carpooling lead to save money and time, cycling instead of car riding increases physical activity and decreases the air pollution.