1st May 2019
By LoveEarth
Comments As marathon season begins we watch all the amazing promotions for homeopathic health, self-discipline, and charity. But we can’t help but see the INSANE amount of plastic, waste, and pollution tied to these events.
Unfortunately, marathons have an astonishing environmental impact.
Let us look at The Boston Marathon as an example. It is the oldest annual marathon in the world with more than 30,000 global, professional and amateur athletes participate, attracting over half a million spectators. That is A LOT of people in such a small city.
Now let’s look at the break down of their marathons footprint from past years:
Physical Waste
In 2017, the Boston Marathon went through about 62,000 disposable water bottles, 1.4 million water cups, and 171,380 brochures.
These and other disposables generated a whopping 10,000 bags of trash. That’s a bag of trash per every three participants.
The carbon emissions associated with traveling to Boston for the race is a heavy hitter. 75% of runners come from outside New England, producing 0.24 pounds of CO2 per mile flown. For reference, a single passenger’s round-trip flight from Salt Lake City to Logan Airport (2093 miles) creates over a ton of CO2. According to NC State University, it would take a tree over 40 years to sequester that amount of CO2.
There’s also the 36 mile bus rides to the starting line in Hopkinton, MA—cumulatively, they contribute another 22,400 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions.
We can’t even begin to estimate the amount of emissions used for ground travel. Many people drive far distances to attend the marathon and/or rent cars during their time in the city.
Their Progress
Boston has made massive steps towards a more eco-friendly event and continues to do so.
They have worked to offset the impacts of bus and motorcycle travel by purchasing electric scooters.
The Sunday pre-race pasta dinner attracts over 12,000 participants each year. Since 2009, compostable utensils and plates have been used at that dinner instead of their plastic alternatives, generating next to no trash.
During the race, runners are able to sort their waste into appropriate bins.
“Green Teams” are tasked with collecting discarded cups, bottles, clothing, and blankets along the course ensuring that recyclables are properly sorted.
Mailers and thick volunteer booklets have been replaced with a small pamphlet, made using post-consumer paper and eco-friendly ink.
Some have already begun their transition towards more sustainable sporting events with small steps. Others have dove in head first, showing the rest of the world anything is possible if we just ACT.
■The Schneider Electric Marathon de Paris, offer to offset some of the carbon emissions their runners generate traveling to the race. In the case of the Schneider Electric, offsets are actually positioned in Kenya, a hotbed for marathon runners (and a country already facing impacts of climate change).
■The Shelby Farms Greenline Half Marathon in Tennessee, invest in exclusively compostable cups.
■The Hartford Marathon in Connecticut has stopped handing out water bottles at the finish line. Instead, a 50-foot long water fountain allows 40 people to drink at once, saving upwards of 10,000 water bottles.
■The London Marathon swapped bottles and cups of water for pouches crafted from seaweed. Edible water bottles are now a thing, they have a thin membrane holding the water that’s both edible and tasteless, meaning runners can bite a hole in the capsule, guzzle the water inside, then swallow the cover. If runners don’t fancy eating their pouch, they can chuck it on the floor – the pods biodegrade within six weeks, compared to plastic which can take up to 400-1k years.
Making these kinds of big impact events eco-friendly will be a monumental win for our planet and a leading example for ALL big events.
Every event of this magnitude should be REQUIRED to meet certain environmental demands. The following should be the bare minimum, “According to the Council for Responsible Sport, environmentally responsible races recycle everything from cardboard to aluminum to glass; use renewables to supply at least 50% of the race’s power; are accessible by public transportation (or provide carpooling); source food locally; minimize water consumption; and offset carbon through credits.”
→ If you are involved in any events like this-whether you are an athlete, volunteer, employee, or supporter- request (or demand) a plastic-free event.
→ Request that all public transport for the event is complimentary.
→ Run for a charity that can use your funding to make that event more sustainable.
→ Making a request never hurt anyone, it simply lights a fire, creating awareness and preventing ignorance.
Keep running the greenest sport on the planet. Make marathons eco-friendly in your town, city, state, and country. Call your governors and demand eco-friendly sporting events and get involved in the actual events to stimulate positive decision making.
Let’s all work towards EVERY marathon being plastic free by 2021.
Share with us in the comments below what you are doing to help green up these kinds of events in your community!
⇣ ⇣ ⇣
