World Aquatics Championships to go green with medals made from recycled aluminium cans

SINGAPORE – In an effort to go green and support sustainable sporting practices, organisers of the World Aquatics Championships (WCH) and World Aquatics Masters in Singapore will be awarding medals made from recycled aluminium cans during the meets in July and August.

At the PAP Community Foundation (PCF) Sparkletots in Marsiling on March 12, the WCH’s Singapore 2025 organising committee unveiled its Trash to Treasure initiative, where students from five PCF pre-schools, eight primary schools and three secondary schools contributed to the nearly 100,000 aluminium cans required for the 5,000 medals.

These medals will be given out at the July 11-Aug 3 WCH and the masters event from July 26 to Aug 22.

More than 2,500 athletes are expected to compete in 77 medal events across six aquatic sports – swimming, artistic swimming, water polo, diving, high diving and open water swimming – at the main event, with around 6,000 expected to take part in the senior meet.

Organising committee co-chairman Mark Chay said: “When it comes to sustainability, it’s something which is rather new to mega events like the world championships, and I think it’s something that we’ll need to continue on, but for the World Aquatics Championships, we view it as this is the start.

“This is where we set a benchmark.

“This is where we’re able to assess and measure and hopefully this will carry on at future events, not only just in Singapore, but also around the world as well.”

The aluminium cans collected through the initiative will undergo open-loop recycling, where they are processed, cleaned and smelted into medals.

Local furniture store ipse ipsa ipsum will manufacture the medals, with each one taking about 20 cans to produce and weighing approximately 150g.

Store founder Saurabh Mangla said: “We feel that it’s a great privilege to have an opportunity to highlight our work at the World Aquatics Championships. We have been pushing for people to adopt more circular practices and we call it the regenerative and restorative mindset.”

“We are trying to make a monumental and seismic shift in the way people consume materials in the built environment, as well as for raw materials for manufacturing... this will really create a benchmark, where people will start aspiring to do something similar,” he added.

The recycled medals will be a first for a WCH, though the 2024 Paris Olympics and Paralympics featured medals designed by French luxury jeweller Chaumet that incorporated a piece of iron from the iconic Eiffel Tower.

However, controversy ensued months after the events with some athletes complaining that their medals were showing signs of tarnishing. Paris 2024 organisers later said that any damaged medals would be replaced, with the French mint saying in February that 220 requests – 4 per cent of the total number of medals awarded – had been received.

When asked how the organisers would ensure the quality of the recycled medals for the two championships here, a WCH spokesperson said: “While it is expected that most items, including medals, will show natural signs of wear over time, we are working with ipse ipsa ipsum who are knowledgeable in the area of manufacturing with recycled materials.

“The development concerning Paris 2024 medals has been communicated to them and we have confidence in their expertise and trust their efforts to test the materials used in fabrication, in order to prolong the quality of the medals for as long as possible.”

The spokesperson added that should there be issues with the quality of the medals, athletes are advised to reach out to the Singapore 2025 organising committee for assistance with getting them replaced.

At the event, Chay also provided an update on the construction of the WCH Arena, a temporary 4,800-seater facility for the world championships that is being built at a carpark beside the Kallang Tennis Hub.

He said: “If you drive by the Kallang Alive precinct, you can see that the facility is more or less up.

“We are on track and are working very hard to make sure that we meet the deadline of mid-May, early June, to be up and in time for test events (South-east Asia Age Group Swimming Championships) to make sure that equipment operations are fully functional during the big show in July and August.

“The ticket sales haven’t opened yet, but I think interest from the community and international community has been very strong and we are quite confident in filling the seats.

“Our OCBC Aquatic Centre is great for SEA Games-level events, but you need more people for the World Championships.”