As World Cup pollution mounts, Vermont team turns recycled bottles and old kits into jerseys

As scrutiny mounts over the climate cost of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, one Vermont soccer club is focusing on the environmental impact of soccer apparel.

What's happening?

According to Vermont Public, which cited a study from the environmental think tank New Weather Institute, the World Cup could produce more than 9 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent.

The growth is tied largely to the tournament's expanded size and the long trips between stadiums, but uniforms add to the sport's footprint as well.

That footprint starts with the fabric itself. Soccer jerseys are typically made from polyester, a synthetic material derived from fossil fuels that does not biodegrade.

A 2019 U.K. Parliament report estimated that each shirt is responsible for nearly 5.5 kilograms (12.1 pounds) of carbon dioxide, while polyester fiber production uses about 70 million barrels of oil every year.

In a sport built on merchandise sales, those numbers add up fast. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation estimated that the world's top 10 soccer clubs sold more than 17 million polyester shirts in 2021.

Meanwhile, the U.N. Environment Programme says a garbage truck's worth of textiles is landfilled or burned every second.

For Vermont Green, a club with a sustainability-first identity, that challenge is central. 

"Obviously, we see it as the right thing to do, and we see it as something that is our own kind of personal challenge to try to challenge the norms of professional sport," Vermont Green co-founder Patrick Infurna said, per Vermont Public.

Why does it matter?

The issue goes well beyond sports merchandise. Cheap, overproduced clothing contributes to air pollution, water contamination, and mountains of waste, while often relying on exploitative labor practices somewhere along the supply chain.

It can also be costly for shoppers. Fast fashion may look cheap upfront, but poorly made garments tend to wear out quickly, forcing people to replace them again and again. That cycle can drain wallets while sending more fabric to landfills and incinerators.

Even when brands turn to recycled polyester, the fix is imperfect.

Kelly McDowell, a sustainable fashion professor at the University of Vermont, said recycling synthetics is far more complicated than many people realize.

"That's the difference where you need a larger production process in a factory to recycle and reuse the polyester, and therefore, more chemicals come into play with synthetics," McDowell said, per Vermont Public.

What's being done?

The club's apparel strategy is built around keeping materials in circulation rather than constantly pushing new sales. Vermont Green works with companies such as Player Layer and Recover Brands, and one Ben & Jerry's partnership training top is made from roughly two dozen recycled plastic water bottles.

Its approach also extends to how kits are released. Instead of introducing separate new home and away uniforms each season, the club carries the previous year's home kit forward as the next year's away jersey.

It also lets products sell out rather than overordering merchandise and avoids aggressive tactics such as flash sales that encourage unnecessary buying.

Supporters can also drop off used clothing at games through the club's Closed Loop Program, allowing those items to be collected and recycled back into the supply chain.

According to the team's 2025 mission report, its partnership with Recover Brands has avoided 37,573 pounds of greenhouse gas pollution and kept 62,752 plastic bottles out of landfills.

Joe Whitten, co-founder and CEO of Apparel Impact, said: "At its core, the circular economy is about keeping products and materials in use for as long as possible instead of following the traditional 'make, use, dispose' model."

Infurna said the club plans to keep experimenting: "We can make jerseys from coffee grounds or bamboo or all these other cool ideas."

And, as the Vermont Green co-founder put it: "Building your club with a sustainability identity or any mission identity does not have to be something that sacrifices the quality of the team."

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