Veolia, the UK’s leading resource management company has been Wembley Stadium’s recycling and waste management partner since 2007 and continues to employ innovative solutions to help make the stadium more sustainable.
Veolia started the dismantling process by detaching the mounted board from the stands and safely lowering it to the ground using a small crane. Separating the individual components contained allows Veolia to recycle critical raw materials and return them to the circular economy.
Glass and metals have been recovered from the lighting inside the boards, separating this from the mercury and other hazardous materials. The video panels have been disassembled to recover metals and plastic which will be graded, processed and repurposed. An impressive 94% of the scoreboards electronic boards and accessories have been recycled, saving 60-70% of the carbon emissions associated with virgin material extraction and processing.
Veolia’s new GreenUp strategy for 2024, focuses on finding ecological and sustainable solutions to recycling hard to recycle waste streams such as hazardous waste. The Wembley scoreboard presented a number of challenges to Veolia in terms of transporting LED tiles safely in line with storage and regulatory requirements, separating heavy silicone for recycling and steel segregation to ensure high grade aluminium is recovered for recycling.
This project saw Veolia work closely in partnership with Daktronics, the global leading scoreboard manufacturer and EDS (Electronic Digital Services). Veolia, in line with Wembley stadium’s “zero waste to landfill” policy, has supported the successful decommissioning and disposal of the old digital scoreboard which helps advance the sustainability of the Wembley event experience.
Commenting on the scoreboard recycling, Pascal Hauret, Veolia’s Managing Director, Municipal said: “Figures show that electronic waste is on the rise and Veolia is committed to accelerating sustainable recycling solutions as part of our GreenUp strategy. Recycling Wembley’s digital scoreboard allowed us to return these critical raw materials to the circular economy, regenerating resources to be used again.
“The safe treatment and recycling of hazardous and electronic waste is increasingly vital to protect the environment and reduce our reliance on virgin materials. We were proud to support Wembley in their ecological targets and look forward to implementing many more innovations together.”
