A nice day and a great turnout for the RF Events Liberty Run in Canton, with lots of red, white, and blue in evidence. About 750 runners participated in the 5K or 10K (some doing both) and the one-mile fun run.
With a relatively small finish area we needed only one Zero Waste station near the finish line, where people picked up water bottles and snack bags. There was no separate food tent this year, so only the registration table needed a separate All Waste box. However, there were some abandoned water bottles and banana peels on the other side of the road, so it might be worth putting a table with All Waste boxes there next year.
Liz (left) and Sara at the station.
Main waste streams were cardboard from boxes of T-shirts and age group award pint glasses, banana peels, snack bag wrappers, water bottles, and cups from the aid stations, with a few specialty items like race bibs and “to go” coffee boxes.
Sean demonstrates his smooth “trash release” technique.
Total waste for this event continues to drop, going under one hundred pounds this year, with waste per 100 runners cut by nearly two-thirds since 2016. And one again we had less than one pound of landfill, keeping our streak going of a “single baggie o’ trash” at this event.
One notable change from last year was less litter in the race area when we arrived, due to a festival worker walking around picking up trash. I’m proud to say someone doing the same after the race would have come up empty, as the Green Team swept the area clean before we left.
Thanks to HPR staffers Liz and Sara for sorting and weighing, and helping pack everything up at the end. Another smooth event with nearly zero landfill!
Happy Planet Running 