Lay’s Replay brings joy to the community through football
Up to five Lay's RePlay football pitches are set to open throughout the world in 2021, with the first being in Thembisa, and countries like Russia, Brazil, Turkey and the United Kingdom following suit.
On June 24, Lay’s announced a new global programme, Lay’s RePlay, which will use the power of football to provide joy to deserving communities around the world, starting in Thembisa.
Lay’s has joined the UEFA Foundation to reuse empty chip packages to help build sustained football pitches and bring together communities to promote positive outcomes for people.
The organisation partnered with streetfootballworld and local partners, Amandla, the South African Football Association and the City of Ekurhuleni.
“As South Africans, we know how powerful sport can be in bringing people together, something we, as PepsiCo, have fostered for decades. This Lay’s RePlay pitch now provides the youth in Thembisa with a place to come together, share joy and burn off some energy, while bringing a positive impact to our community and our planet,” says Tertius Carstens, CEO of PepsiCo Sub-Saharan Africa.
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Up to five Lay’s RePlay football pitches are set to open throughout the world in 2021, with the first being in Thembisa, and countries like Russia, Brazil, Turkey and the United Kingdom following suit.
With the potential to benefit over 16 000 members of the community through more than 3 600 hours of play and educational-sporting programmes in the first year alone, Lay’s RePlay places a strong emphasis on involving community members and local organisations throughout the planning, construction, and maintenance phases of each pitch, with the goal of developing programming that can address social issues impaired by poverty.
In South Africa, for example, the local programme, managed by NPO partner Amandla looks to empower the youth, promote inclusivity and share key life skills and pro-social behaviours with EduFootball sessions.
“We’ve seen how football and sport can create the foundation to engage youth in holistic development. By working together and supporting Lay’s RePlay, we believe that regular, consistent and sustained participation of young people in our programmes will enable participants to make better life choices,” adds Florian Zech, founder and managing director of Amandla.
Lay’s has longstanding ties in the football community and is an official partner of the men’s UEFA Champions League and UEFA women’s football.
“The true power of the sport sits in the values, such as patience, respect, discipline and determination that it instils, while teaching our youth to come together through teamwork, which I believe is invaluable in empowering communities far beyond the pitch. I’ve already seen the joy it created in the short term and I’m excited about the impact it can have on the next generation over time,” says former Bafana Bafana and Leeds captain and UEFA Foundation for Children ambassador Lucas Radebe.
Lay’s RePlay pitches maximise social value while minimising environmental impact. From the materials making the pitch to the installation, the pitches are designed to be as environmentally sustainable as possible.
In partnership with GreenFields, a global artificial pitch manufacturer, the empty Lay’s chip packs are collected from local waste and recycling partnerships, shredded and converted into pellets that form the underlying layer beneath the turf called Ecocept.
Both the turf and Ecocept layer are 100% recyclable at the end of their life span. Beyond the turf, Lay’s has committed to adopting a carbon compensation strategy that will ensure all pitches deliver a net-zero carbon footprint over their life spans of an estimated 10 years.
This global initiative and commitment by Lay’s has been verified by independent consultancy Good Business with an in-depth study finding that Lay’s RePlay pitches have a significantly lower environmental impact than alternative artificial pitches across several areas, including reduced greenhouse gas emissions, microplastic pollution, recyclable material and turf, ecological disturbance and water usage.
The brand launches Lay’s RePlay as a progression of the artificial pitches it developed with the UEFA Foundation for Children in Jordan’s Za’atari and Azraq Refugee Camps in 2017 and 2018, which have since provided 35 000 people with access to the sport.
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