Coke Florida’s Recycling Effort at the FIFA World Cup 2026™ in Miami

Volunteers under a red Coca‑Cola tent sort and bag plastic bottles at an outdoor cleanup event; a fire truck is visible in the background.

When the world’s biggest sporting event came to Miami, the Coke Florida team knew that refreshing hundreds of thousands of fans was only part of the job.

Just as important as providing fans with their favorite beverages was ensuring the bottles and cans used throughout the tournament were recycled and reused.

Sustainability is one of Coke Florida’s core business priorities, and the FIFA World Cup 2026™ provided an opportunity to put that commitment into action on one of the world’s biggest stages. From Hard Rock Stadium to the FIFA Fan Festival™ at Bayfront Park, our teams worked behind the scenes every day to build a recycling system capable of keeping pace with events welcoming tens of thousands of fans at a time.

Recycling Starts with Packaging

Red Coca‑Cola can on green grass with blurred fans in the background on a stadium field

One of the most important decisions happened long before the first kick–off.

Many of the beverages served during the tournament were packaged in PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate) plastic bottles, which is widely accepted for recycling and can be transformed into new products when properly collected and processed. While recycling depends on many factors, choosing recyclable packaging is an important first step in helping support a circular economy.

Making Recycling Easy

Woman in a red Coca-Cola outfit hands a plastic bottle near red recycling bins at an outdoor promo booth; city high-rises and palm trees in the background.

Recycling only works if people can participate.

That’s why Coke Florida created recycling opportunities that were never far away. Throughout the stadium and fan activation areas, recycling bins were placed where fans naturally gathered, making it easy to recycle a bottle or can after enjoying a refreshing beverage.

To make participation even more engaging, many recycling stations doubled as friendly competitions. Fans could “vote” for the winner of an upcoming match simply by placing their empty container into the recycling bin representing their favorite team.

It was a simple idea that encouraged participation while adding another layer of excitement to the fan experience.

What Happened After the Bottle Went Into the Bin?

Two volunteers in red Coca‑Cola shirts serve drinks at an outdoor event under a canopy, with bags of bottles on the table nearby.

For most visitors, that’s where the story ended.

For our sustainability teams, it was just beginning.

Throughout each event day, often multiple times per day, our recycling partner, Osprey Initiative, collected recyclable containers from across the venue. Working alongside Coke Florida’s sustainability team, every load was carefully sorted, and liquids were removed to prepare the materials for recycling.

The collected material was then transported to Coke Florida’s Broward Distribution Center, where it was baled before continuing its journey to a recycling processor where it could be prepared for its next life.

This work happened day after day, match after match, helping ensure the materials collected through the program stayed in the recycling stream.

Supporting the overall event sustainability effort also meant collaborating with organizations like Clean Vibes, whose expertise in event waste management and resource recovery helps large-scale events divert recyclable materials and improve waste collection operations. Together, these partnerships helped create a comprehensive approach to managing recyclable materials throughout the tournament. (FIFA World Cup 2026 Miami)

A Massive Undertaking

Three volunteers in red shirts and orange gloves sort a pile of crushed aluminum cans at a curbside recycling bin outdoors during a charity event of osprey.world organizer(s).

The scale of the FIFA World Cup in Miami makes this work especially significant.

Hard Rock Stadium welcomed nearly 65,000 fans for each match, while the FIFA Fan Festival at Bayfront Park was designed to host up to 30,000 visitors each day across its 23-day run. (FIFA World Cup 2026 Miami)

Now imagine those fans enjoying multiple beverages throughout a hot South Florida day.

Every bottle and can represent an opportunity, not simply to refresh a guest, but to recover valuable recyclable material instead of sending it to landfill.

That required planning, logistics, dedicated partners, and countless hours of work happening long after fans left for the day.

Sustainability Takes Teamwork

Volunteer in a red shirt and cap, wearing gloves, pouring water from a bottle at a cleanup station with a police SUV in the background.

While fans experienced unforgettable moments on the pitch, another team was hard at work behind the scenes making sustainability part of the tournament experience.

From selecting recyclable packaging to creating fun, accessible recycling stations, collecting materials throughout each day, sorting them, transporting them and preparing them for reprocessing, every step required collaboration.

It’s one example of how Coke Florida continues working toward a more sustainable future—one bottle, one fan, and one event at a time.