Passion for sports, expertise in the waste sector, and environmental protection are the
pillars of the esosport project, a brand of ESO RECYCLING, which since 2009 has been operating throughout
Italy for the collection and recycling of end-of-life sports materials: sports shoes, bicycle
tires and inner tubes, helmets, tennis and padel balls.
What might seem like waste destined for landfill finds new life in a
different form with esosport, thanks to processing at the ESO RECYCLING “Amato Cannara” facility in
Tolentino in the Marche region, specialized in treating sports waste, waste from the fashion
and workwear industries, and PPE (personal protective equipment) collected through ESO’s back
to work project.
At the ESO RECYCLING facility, new secondary raw materials are created in the form of colored
granules, giving life to new projects and initiatives focused on environmental sustainability through the
creation of sports and playground surfaces, tiles, and sports products.
The esosport project, with a network of over 300 collection points distributed throughout Italy, was born from
an idea by Nicolas Meletiou, managing director of ESO and passionate athlete, who has always
maintained that the environment is a resource to be preserved and that waste can be transformed from scrap to
resource, minimizing its impact through the search for new ways for its
regeneration.
“The esosport project was born from a phone call with two friends, Nicolas Meletiou recalls. It was
2009. We’re all passionate runners and I’ve been working in waste management since 1997. They asked me: is there a way
to avoid throwing shoes in the general waste?
Back then, people didn’t talk about circular economy the way they do today, but for me the path was clear:
transform waste and put resources back into circulation.
Many years have passed since then and, looking back, it seems incredible how much we’ve
managed to achieve together. Today, thanks to those who believed in our project and supported us to
help it grow, playgrounds, athletic tracks, and sports surfaces are a wonderful Italian
reality.”
Starting from the conviction that it’s possible to reduce waste accumulation in landfills, the collection and
regeneration of end-of-life sports materials opens new paths for the creation of
projects that involve the transformation of materials and their reuse, often with a
return to the community and territory from which they were collected.
The initiative “Betty’s Garden“, dedicated to Elisabetta Salvioni Meletiou, together with the “Pheidippides
Track”, are the finest examples of sports waste transformation becoming surfaces
for playgrounds and athletic tracks.
www.esosport.it – www.esorecycling.it