Lord's Taverners' recycled kit scheme is changing lives in the UK and beyond

By collecting and redistributing usable cricket equipment to partner organisations, the Lord's Taverners are helping young people with a lack of kit to access sport and enjoy the physical and mental wellbeing benefits it delivers

This article features in our July 2023 magazine. To read the full version, get a copy of the magazine by clicking here.

Whether your old kit has been unceremoniously dumped in the rubbish after yet another duck, or you have long-outgrown gloves and pads sat gathering dust in your attic, there’s much better use it could be going to.

The Lord's Taverners sports kit recycling programme collects usable equipment from across the UK, which is then sorted and redistributed to partner organisations, allowing young people with a lack of kit to access sport and enjoy the physical and mental wellbeing benefits it delivers.

Having to splash out on new, safe equipment is one of the main barriers to accessing sport in the UK. That situation has now only been exacerbated by the cost-of-living crisis.

But the programme goes way beyond our own borders, with it also sending large amounts of kit to projects in India, Germany, Antigua, Romania, Rwanda, Uganda, Gambia and Mexico.

Last year the programme distributed more than 22,000 items to projects – that's nearly 9,700kg of kit that's been saved from landfill and donated to those who need it most.

And nearly 3,000 items of cricket equipment and clothing (weighing just under a tonne) were distributed to Pakistan in the aftermath of last year's devastating floods to enable affected schools to rebuild their sports curriculums and help children return to a sense of normality.

One of the Taverners' largest kit donations to date was to Brazil in 2019, when a massive 3,500kg of kit was transported to the South American country. An appetite to grow cricket as a national sport has, in the past, been held back by a simple lack of access to kit.

"Despite cricket being a great sport to practise, it also teaches moral values like citizenship and respect," said Luis Felipe Pinheiro, one of the beneficiaries of the donation in the Brazilian city of Poços de Caldas.

"It helps exclude risks and hardships for children from vulnerable areas and shows them the good things in life."

Richard Avery, development director for Cricket Brasil, observed the impact the donations made: "When the deliveries arrived, the kids and adults that collected the kit were just so appreciative of what they received. It was like Christmas for them."

There are plenty of ways to get involved with the sports kit recycling programme, including becoming a regional kit collector, delivering kit overseas, engaging your colleagues and customers, or getting your organisation to partner with the Lord's Taverners.

To learn more and get involved, visit www.lordstaverners.org/sportskitrecycling

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