Sports Market
How Apollo Tyres plans to repurpose tyres and create sports pitches
With a vision to make tomorrow sustainable, Apollo Tyres has repurposed tyres to give everyone access to sport and launched two new sports pitches at Chennai and Pune.
The world, they say, is a playground but a unique initiative from Apollo Tyres, one of the leading global tyre brands based in India, is on the lookout to turn this very playground into a sustainable one with their #TyresToTurf enterprise.
With the revolutionary idea to repurpose, reuse, recycle tyres effectively and give them a new lease of life by using their crumbs to create sustainable, eco-friendly sports pitches, Apollo Tyres has launched two new sports pitches in India, one in Chennai and the other in Pune, in its efforts to #GoTheDistance for making a positive change.
Committed to making tomorrow a better place with the help of #Repurposed tyres that have been used to create the surface of the artificial and sustainable sports pitches, Apollo Tyres is actively doing their bit to attract talent from the youth to take centre stage and unleash their potential and make sport accessible to all.
Having already established the first sports pitch near the North Stand of the iconic Old Trafford in Manchester, home of Apollo Tyres' partner Manchester United Football Club way back in 2014, the two new pitches at Chennai and Pune are welcome additions that take up the number of sustainable sports pitches to 20.
Out of these, 11 are fully operational and are spread over Manchester (UK), Chennai, Pune, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Mumbai and four more sites are ready to be unveiled in the Northern and Eastern regions of India within the next month.
Speaking at the inauguration of the two new sports pitches, Satish Sharma, President, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa (APMEA), Apollo Tyres Ltd said, "Apollo Tyres as a company is committed to sustainability. These pitches created using repurposed rubber from our own tyres, are one of the many initiatives that we are taking towards our Sustainability Journey. These pitches have a two-fold objective -- towards a sustainable future and 'access to sports' for the youth from the local communities, where they can test out and hone their sporting skills."
Interestingly every year, one billion end-of-life tyres (ELT) are generated globally, out of which 4 billion such tyres pollute the environment, lying in landfills, and stockpiles around the world. Apollo Tyres had the idea to recycle, reuse and repurpose the tyres and turn the lives of countless people around by inviting a positive impact through the medium of sports by establishing multi-sport playing eco-friendly spaces in the true spirit of #TyresToTurf.
To make a 160 feet x 90 feet football pitch around 1500 car tyres are necessary that estimate to about 7500 kgs of shredded, crumb rubber, which only shows the vast potential that lies here if tyres are simply repurposed for a better cause which Apollo Tyres dedicatedly seek to continue doing.
Tirelessly striving to build a sustainable model and create access to sports and fitness for everyone, Apollo Tyres shreds the old tyres into usable crumb rubber to create layers on the pitches that serves as the cradle for raw talent to reveal itself. By repurposing tyres, Apollo Tyres ensures that the ground is safe for playing and of high-quality and importantly, eco-friendly.
Partnering with HotFut Sports Infrastructure Pvt Ltd to make these unique, sustainable pitches, Apollo Tyres wants to provide platforms for a large gamut of India that still remains untapped storehouses of potential, especially in the arena of sports.
India's grassroots sector is a treasure trove of such talent that is waiting to see the light of day and through Apollo Tyres' sustainable sports pitches that are climate-conscious, a sporty future can be envisioned now.
Giving birth to a string of grassroots development initiatives like the Apollo Tyres United We Play programme with Manchester United Soccer Schools, Youth Leagues with HotFut, Apollo Tyres, through their commitment to creating sustainable pitches from repurposed tyres and setting a legacy of their own, hopes to make a difference and make sports and healthy living accessible to all cross-sections of the society.
