Bottle belts, compostable cups and biodegradable capsules trialled at this year’s London Marathon to combat plastic waste

Bottle belts, compostable cups and biodegradable capsules will be trialled at this year’s London Marathon in a bid to combat plastic waste.

Huge events such as the marathon are notorious for the amount of plastic bottles discarded in the street, but it is hoped this year’s initiatives will significantly reduce the amount of plastic sent to landfill.

A group of 700 runners will trial new bottle belts made from 90 per cent recycled materials. These belts will encourage runners to carry their own water throughout the race, and will be monitored to see how much water a runner uses. They will then be collected for cleaning and reuse once the race has finished.

However, the pouches are specifically designed to carry Buxton 250ml bottles, rather than larger reusable ones.

Along the route, runners will also be able to pick up various non-plastic refills.

At the Lucozade Sport Station at Mile 23 runners will be offered Ooho edible and biodegradable capsules of Lucozade Sport made from seaweed.

Three further Lucozade Sport Stations will use compostable cups rather than bottles.

There will also be fewer drink stations along the route, reducing more than 215,000 plastic bottles on the course compared to 2018.

Measures such as drop zones for bottles will be introduced across the course to speed up the clean-up process and ensure bottles are recycled.

But it doesn’t stop at plastic bottles.

Capes designed to stop runners bringing disposable kit bags have been offered to 500 runners. Again, these caps will be collected and cleaned for reuse,

Recovery bags at the finish will be made from 90 per cent recycled plastic and will no longer contain leaflets and giveaways, and branding material will also be collected and reused or recycled into industrial rags.

Hugh Brasher, event director for London Marathon Events, said: “We are passionate about the concept of eliminate, reduce, reuse and recycle and fully committed to reducing our environmental impact. Working closely with our partners and local authorities, we have developed some truly innovative initiatives and plans to make this year’s Virgin Money London Marathon the most sustainable ever. This challenge is huge as we are looking at sustainability across a myriad of factors: just some of the areas we are currently working on include reducing CO2 emissions, transportation of runners (both internationally and within the UK), a reduction in the use of generators and plastics together with more local procurement of event infrastructure.

“We know our participants share our passion and want us to take action. It is a huge challenge as we must balance providing proper runner welfare with reducing our environmental impact. We can’t achieve everything in one event, in one year, but the changes and the trials we’re introducing for this year have the potential to change how mass participation events are delivered in future. Everyone can make a difference: our participants, spectators, contractors, volunteers and staff.”