The 2018 T-Rex Triathlon series kicks off with the Triceratops on a beautiful June evening. Last year we averaged over 95 percent landfill diversion over the three events. Would we be able to continue that level of performance?
Sustainability Report: Triceratops Triathlon 2018
Date: June 20, 2018
Event company: RF Events, Ann Arbor MI
Location: Island Lake Park, Brighton MI
# Attendees: 450 triathletes
Zero Waste Team volunteers: 4
Results
Overall diversion: 94.6%
- Compostables: 31.5 lbs.
- Recyclables: 97.9 lbs.
- Landfill: 7.4 lbs.
Race Overview
The Triceratops is the first of a set of three summer triathlons at Island Lake Park. The others in the series are the Pterodactyl (July) and the T-Rex (August). All are sprint triathlons – half mile swim, 12.4 mile bike, 5K run – and follow the same course.
This is an evening event, starting at 6:00 p.m. and wrapped up by 9:00.
Zero Waste Plan
One tent is set up by the registration tent. After race start it moves to face people exiting.
Three tents roughly surrounding the finish & food area.
Transition: a set of bins at the bike in/out (also check in and out). One “All Waste” box at Run Out.
What Went Well
We had enough team members to keep the tents sorted, so final sort was fairly quick – good because it gets dark during takedown. And just one small bag of trash again!
We’ve had people continue to toss waste (all kinds) into the park’s recycle cans, even when covered. This time we went for overkill with tarps and extra signs, and it worked.
Challenges
The transition area gets littered with small plastic film tabs from the timing tags, which requires a lot of picking up during the event.
For some reason these events have more people putting mixed bags of waste (e.g. McDonald’s meals) into our tents. It may be from people using the beach. Some items can be recovered, but it takes extra time and much of it has to go to trash anyway.
Opportunities for Improvement
More education for the triathletes not to just toss their timing tag waste on the ground.
I’m not sure what we can do to avoid or reduce outside bags of trash getting into our tents.
Happy Planet Running 