Greening marathons

Greening marathons

Last week I was in Boston to run the marathon and I was impressed with the efforts major races take in making their events environmentally friendly. The water supplier for the Boston Marathon is Poland Springs. They have an impressive record of environmentally sustainable products. Their 500ml bottle is incredibly thin and apparently uses 30% less plastic than the average bottle. It felt so thin that I almost felt that I could rupture it by squeezing it.
In my race kit I received a 1 liter bottle of Poland Springs plus a 500ml bottle at the finish and a 500ml bottle of Gatorade. Multiply that by 25,000 runners and that is a lot of bottles. Every little bit helps!
The Vancouver Marathon goes a little further. They have eliminated water bottles altogether. Brita (the water purification company) has partnered with the Vancouver Marathon again this year to go bottle free. Brita serves water in corn-based compostable cups. They filtered 30,000 liters of water using 21 trucks and a custom water filtration system at the Vancouver Marathon 2010 and will be doing the same at the marathon on May 1st this year. Appropriate considering there is no more environmentally friendly way of getting around 42.2 kilometers than using one’s own two feet!