Every year, an estimated 454 tonnes of sports kit ends up in landfill, generating the equivalent of 32,400 tonnes of CO₂ – while many families struggle to afford the sports kit their children need. Across West Wales, partners recognised both the environmental and social cost of this challenge and came together to create a shared solution.
At the heart of this collaboration is Replay, a campaign co created by partners from local authority sport development teams, Welsh Triathlon, the Scarlets, Ospreys, Weightlifting Wales, Welsh Netball, Welsh Athletics, Beicio Cymru, Hockey Wales, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Wales, Welsh Golf and more.
Clubs and communities wanted to reduce waste, lower costs for families and make participation more sustainable, so Activate West Wales partnered with Sporting Giants to create the Replay campaign. Funding from Admiral, through the WSA Sustainability in Sport Grant, enabled the campaign to be delivered at scale across the region. By pairing with the online platform Loopeto, Replay is more than a campaign, it encourages long term behaviour change.
Building confidence through Carbon Literacy
Partners had an opportunity to undertake Carbon Literacy, equipping officers to have conversations with clubs and communities about sustainability, explaining why recycling, reuse and waste reduction matter and how reusing sports kit makes a significant difference.
A circular economy for sports kit, equipment and school uniform
Loopeto is run by Holly and Sean Gallagher, parents of three children active in school and sport. Having spent years involved in grassroots sport, they saw the same issue everywhere – families had no simple, sustainable way to pass on outgrown sports kit or school uniform
The result was unnecessary waste, rising costs and children missing out on opportunities because essential items were unaffordable. Motivated to change this, Holly and Sean created Loopeto, an online marketplace where clubs and schools can share donated items, helping parents exchange what they no longer need.
Loopeto provides the digital platform that helps the Replay campaign to encourage communities to reuse and recycle sports kit easily, consistently and at scale.
Collaborative impact across West Wales
By working together, Loopeto and Replay are reshaping how communities think about sports kit, affordability and sustainability. The Replay campaign will help organisations across Wales to transform how they manage sports kit reuse by promoting Loopeto to parents, schools, clubs and communities, making it easier for families to access affordable sports kit while reducing waste.
Loopeto also offers school uniform reuse across Wales, and twovery different communities have already shown how powerful these two approaches can be.
Waunarlwydd Rugby Club – sports kit reuse made simple
Waunarlwydd RFC wanted to improve how sports kit was reused. Its “boot room” consisted of bags of old boots stored in a container, hard to manage, rarely used, and dependent on volunteers. The club struggled to maintain a reuse system due to time pressures and volunteer turnover.
In 2021, the club partnered with Loopeto by uploading usable boots online, removing damaged items and promoting the platform through WhatsApp and social media. Items were quickly rehomed, especially to children new to the sport.
Loopeto replaced a volunteer led process with a simple, community driven initiative that requires no storage or sorting, allows parents and players to share sports kit directly and provides an opportunity to remind parents to keep activity flowing.
The benefits were significant with outgrown sports kits being passed down, saving time, removing reliance on volunteers, increasing reuse and reducing waste. Loopeto has supported families with affordable access to sports kit and removed the stigma through private and peer to peer exchange.
Matt Price, Club Secretary said: “Loopeto has completely changed how we manage sports kit reuse. What used to be a disorganised boot room is now a simple, community-driven system where parents and players share sports kit easily. Four years on, we’re still using it and it works brilliantly.”
Ysgol Bro Dinefwr Primary School – improving uniform access and reducing financial pressure
Based in Llandeilo, Ysgol Bro Dinefwr faced increasing issues with uniform compliance, with affordability being a barrier for many parents. Rising costs were putting pressure on families, and the school needed a practical, sustainable solution.
The school introduced Loopeto to create a simple, reuse system where parents can easily buy, sell, or share uniform in the community. Families particularly valued the ability to recover some cost from expensive PE kit that children quickly grew outgrew, and the school welcomed not having to stock uniform.
Loopeto created a continuous cycle of reuse that removed stigma through private, peer to peer access, improved affordability, reduced financial pressure and increased parental engagement. The initiative helped to support better uniform compliance and improved sustainability for us, resulting in a system that keeps uniform in circulation and reduces cost barriers for families.
Ian Chriswick, Former Assistant Head at Ysgol Bro Dinefwr said: “Loopeto has helped us tackle uniform compliance in a practical and sustainable way, giving families an easier, more affordable way to access school uniform.”
A simple idea making a big difference
Across sports clubs and schools, Loopeto and the Replay campaign is proving that reuse doesn’t need to be complicated. By giving communities, a simple online space to share what they no longer need, the Loopeto online platform reduces waste, supports families, cuts costs, removes stigma, reduces workload for staff and keeps sports kit and school uniform in circulation for longer.
