A beautiful morning, sunshine, happy athletes, and a hardworking Green Team that produced another terrific landfill diversion result. That’s a combination hard to beat!
Sustainability Report: Tri Goddess Tri 2019
Date: June 23, 2019
Event company: Epic Races, Ann Arbor MI
Location: Waterloo Recreation Area, Grass Lake MI
# Attendees: 400 athletes + staff + spectators
Green Team size: 5
Results: 96.4 percent landfill diversion
Compostables: 30.5 lbs. Recyclables: 94.3 lbs. Landfill: 4.7 lbs.
It’s unclear why compostables and recycling totals were down significantly from previous years. I’ll post an update if we figure it out.
Main contributors to landfill were foil contaminated with cheese (used to wrap the breakfast burritos), ice cream wrappers, and disposable wet wipes. And the labels and backing sheets used for athlete identification are convenient, but not recyclable.
On the positive side, the packing peanuts were cornstarch and not Styrofoam!
Race Overview
The Island Lake Triathlon takes place at the Portage Lake beach of the Waterloo Recreation Area. Race options include sprint and mini-sprint triathlons, aquabike (swim/bike) and duathlon (run/bike/run). Pancakes, breakfast burritos, and cups of “26.2” beer await finishers.
Zero Waste Plan
Ground Zero, the sorting station, was placed next to the registration/retail tent, with a clear view of the transition area and main finish areas.
Stations were sets of three bins – compost, recycling, wrappers – and a pail for trash. As the finish area “footprint” was small and contained, we decided tents would not be needed. We set up three stations in the finish / food area and one in the beer area. They were also placed at the entrances/exits of transition and just outside the checkout exit.
There was a small playground near the finish area that had a park trash can. Instead of setting up another station there, we would check it periodically and remove any waste from the race.
The finish line received its standard bag for collecting plastic wrap from medals and cases of water bottles, and empty bags of ice.
Post-race food was egg and cheese wraps, pancakes, bananas, ice cream bars, and bags of chips. Plates and forks were compostable. Catered Coffee supplied hot drinks in compostable containers. “Truly” hard seltzer and 26.2 beer were served in plastic cups.
Waste Streams Processed
Collected recyclables were taken to Western Washtenaw Recycling Authority. Compostables went to Tuthill Farms. Special recyclables, such as small plastics and disposable gloves, went into Happy Planet Running’s TerraCycle Zero Waste boxes.
What Went Well
We had a large enough Green Team to staff each station in the finish area and keep the transition stations regularly checked and sorted. The finish line staff also did their best to keep their “bag of bags” free of water bottles and other waste.
The emcee in the transition area regularly reminded people at bike checkout that this was a Zero Waste race and to please put their waste in the proper bins.
The amount of litter in the transition area at takedown was much reduced over triathlons in previous years. The vocal reminders and the new signs posted in transition may have contributed to this improvement.
Challenges
No major challenges. Wow!
Opportunities for Improvement
Investigate options for reducing or eliminating trash created from labels and their backing sheets.
The multi-pack of mini-cones of ice cream has far less waste and litter than individually wrapped bars or cones. Perhaps they can be phased in and others phased out?
Happy Planet Running 