VALENCIA, October 8, 2015

For the first time on the ATP World Tour, recycled materials will be used to create the winner’s trophy of a tournament.

Together with Juan Carlos Ferrero the nonprofit company Ecovidrio, responsible for managing the recycling of glass and packaging waste in Spain, and the City Council of Valencia presented the new initiative in the City of Arts and Sciences on Wednesday. The new Valencia Open trophy will be designed consisting of recycled materials from the glass containers collected over the coming weeks.

During the presentation, the tournament director of the Valencia Open, Juan Carlos Ferrero, was the first to join this campaign and, symbolically, placed a bottle in a mini-container. Francisco Planells, representative of the City of Valencia and Martiarena Borja, Marketing Director Ecovidrio, did the same giving the go-ahead to the campaign.

Starting on Thursday, 25 containers specially designed for the occasion will be provided and distributed in the vicinity of the City of Arts and Sciences, venue of the Valencia Open 250. The final design of this new trophy, made of recycled glass as well as through the collaboration of all the fans, will be officially presented a few days ahead of the tournament’s start.

“It’s the first time in the history of a tennis tournament, that citizens will be the designers and creators of the winner’s trophy. We also hope to continue with raising awareness among citizens of the importance of recycling glasses,” Borja Martiarena told.

For his part, Ferrero, also congratulated those responsible for the initiative. “We are excited to innovate, especially if it is actively getting involved in a recycling process. The trophy is now a result of the participation of thousands of people and we like to think that, in this way, we also encourage people to recycle and be respectful of the environment,” said the director of the Valencia Open and added that “sport and ecology should go hand in hand.”

From now on until Monday 19 October, all Valencia citizens can leave their comments on www.sacalepartidoalvidrio.com about how they would like the design of the trophy.

According to the latest data on the recycling of glass in 2014, Valencia recycled a total of 78,603 tonnes of glass packaging waste.