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• Mexico, USA, or Canada: Which World Cup Host Nation’s Soccer Fans Are Most Sustainable?

  

  Key Takeaways

  • Mexico leads on reduction behaviors, with six in ten soccer fans reporting that they avoid both packaging and single-use plastics most or all of the time.
  • Canada stands out as the recycling leader, reflecting the strength of established systems and the normalization of waste management practices.
  • The USA shows a recycling-led profile with moderate engagement across behaviors, where recycling clearly leads but at lower levels than in Canada and Mexico, pointing to more uneven infrastructure and a continued need for behavior change incentives.

  Which FIFA World Cup host nation’s soccer fans are leading on sustainability?

  As the USA, Canada, and Mexico share hosting duties for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, GlobeScan data shows that while soccer fans across all three countries engage in sustainable behaviors, the ways these behaviors are expressed differ in meaningful ways. In all three markets, soccer fans are more likely than the general public to report engaging in these actions, reinforcing the idea that fans represent a more sustainability-oriented audience overall.

  Across the three core actions examined, avoiding packaging, recycling, and avoiding single-use plastics, Mexico emerges as the leader in reduction-oriented behaviors. Sixty percent of Mexican soccer fans report that they avoid buying products with a lot of packaging most or all of the time, while fifty-nine percent say they avoid single-use plastics, indicating that sustainability is embedded in everyday consumption decisions and focused on reducing waste at the source. Canada, by contrast, demonstrates a system-led model of sustainability, with seventy percent of soccer fans reporting that they recycle consistently, placing Canada clearly ahead of both Mexico and the USA on this dimension. However, lower levels of avoidance behaviors suggest that while recycling is highly normalized, upstream reduction is practiced less consistently.

  The USA shows a more mixed profile where recycling is the most widely reported behavior, leading avoidance actions by a meaningful margin, while just over half of soccer fans report avoiding packaging and single-use plastics. This gap indicates that, as in Canada, recycling is the dominant entry point for sustainability. However, lower overall participation levels than in Canada suggest that access, infrastructure, and system consistency may be less developed, and that behaviors are not as fully embedded in everyday routines. At the same time, weaker avoidance behaviors point to further opportunities to encourage reductions alongside existing recycling habits.

  These results highlight two distinct pathways to sustainable behavior among host nations, with Mexico exemplifying a reduction-first approach, Canada reflecting a system-first model centered on recycling, and the USA following a recycling-led pathway that remains less fully developed and more dependent on continued incentives and support.

  WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

  For brands, these findings point to the importance of aligning sustainability strategies with the dominant behavioral patterns in each market, rather than assuming a uniform approach will resonate equally across audiences. In Mexico, where avoidance behaviors are already widely practiced, the opportunity lies in reinforcing and scaling these habits through packaging-light formats, refill systems, and plastic-free solutions that align with existing consumer expectations. In Canada, the strength of recycling creates a foundation for encouraging a shift toward reduction, positioning avoidance of packaging and plastics as the logical next step in an already established sustainability journey. In the USA, where recycling leads but remains less embedded than in Canada, there is a dual opportunity to strengthen participation through improved access and visibility while also accelerating uptake of reduction behaviors. More broadly, the World Cup offers brands a unique opportunity to both reflect on and influence how fans engage with more sustainable choices across markets.

  How This Insight Was Generated: This analysis is based on a representative online survey of 3,519 people in the general public conducted in July and August 2025. It focuses on self-identified soccer fans in the United States, Canada, and Mexico and examines the share who report avoiding packaging, recycling, and avoiding single-use plastics most or all of the time.

  Survey Question:  Now we would like you to answer a few questions about what you do in your everyday life. Please indicate how often you do each of the following.– I avoid plastic items that will only be used once. – I recycle my waste. – I avoid buying products with a lot of packaging.

  Countries surveyed: Canada, Mexico, and USA

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