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Sustainability enters the padel courts where sport and the circular economy manage to play together. Following this trend, the R-Evolution Padel Cup initiative starts, the first national men’s Open tournament on sustainable fields made of resin and rubber recycled from used tyres. An important sporting event recognized by the Italian Padel Tennis Federation and promoted by Ecopneus, the consortium that deals with end-of-life tyres, and Casali Sport, a company specializing in sports surfaces.
The recycled fields
Hosting the challenges of the new Italian tournament, which provides for a prize pool of 10,000 euros, will be hosted by the innovative «eco-performing XPadel Tyrefield fields, made of resin and rubber recycled from end-of-life tyres, compliant with UNE 41958 IN and recently approved by the Fitp federation ».
Each field, as the promoters point out, “is made with high quality resins with an advanced formulation and highly sustainable components”.
«Ours – says Mauro Moreschi, Casali sales and marketing director – is a commitment that arises from the passion for sport and from the desire to offer resin sports surfaces that best combine technical-performance response and athlete safety». In between are sports and flooring performances and the safety of those on guard, with a focus on the circular economy. «For this reason – he adds – we define our XPadel playing surfaces as “eco-performing”; a perfect synthesis between innovation, safety, performance and sustainability, the latter guaranteed in particular by the Tyrefield type carpet, an integral part of the XPadel fields, deriving from ELT recycling rubber and therefore also highly efficient from a performance point of view» .
The Ecopneus initiative
Giorgio Pisano, market development manager of the Ecopneus consortium, is also on the same wavelength, underlining the research activity carried out by the consortium: «In Ecopneus, we have always invested in research and development – he says -. The XPadel Tyrefiled courts are proof of this: playing on recycled rubber makes the difference and does it for the better, not only in environmental terms, but also in terms of performance, for the benefit and protection of the players. As in any sport, padel can also expose sportsmen to risks and injuries; changes of direction and rotations on its axis are frequent in this sport, as are impacts of the body on the ground, for this reason the playing surface can become every player’s best ally and then choose to build a field using a sustainable material it is a conscious choice to protect the environment».