This year’s Island Lake Tri was a warm one, so the ice cream freezer got hit hard. But the athletes were in fine form, and everyone seemed to have a good time. And the Happy Planet Running team was there to make all that fun sustainable.
We set up the main Zero Waste station by the food tent and entrance to the beer area, and a second unstaffed station on the other end. The beer area got a bin for cans and an All Waste box for other stuff. Each exit from transition got an All Waste box. The food prep area was policed regularly but had a bunch of unsorted waste at takedown, so extra checking closer to takedown would help.
We did not cover the park trash cans, as they were some distance from the race area, but they did accumulate some race waste. Our team rescued quite a bit of it, however, so they get extra credit!
Landfill came mostly from the foil used to wrap the (due to food residue) and the ice cream bar wrappers. Landfill percentage was up a bit from last year but still the second lowest in the five years this event has been zero waste.
Thanks to my volunteer Esmerelda, and especially to staffer Becca, working her first event and holding down the fort while I went to pick up our stations at another nearby event.
Transition had less litter than last year. However, there were still a bunch of the tiny plastic tabs that come off the athlete ankle tags that had to be picked up off the ground one by one. It would be great if we could find a way to have the athletes drop them in a pail on their way out of transition. Signs plus announcements?
Happy Planet Running 