The Super 5K at Novi High School on Super Bowl Sunday was very much a “blue” event. Of the nearly 900 runners, it seemed like 800 were dressed in Lions gear. Ah, what could have been! But spirits were high and conditions were perfect for a quick morning run.
The Zero Waste team set up three stations, all inside: one by the main entrance/exit, one by the rear entrance/exit, and one in the food serving room by the exit to the common room. We cleared out the trash cans in the common area (a lot) and replaced them with All Waste boxes on tables, swapping them out periodically. This worked well.
Our Zero Waste stations are so popular, people just have to get selfies there!
Outside we covered a school trash can and put an All Waste box on top. This filled up fast, so next time we should put a larger box there, or a table with multiple boxes. I also cleaned out race waste from two trash cans by the rear entrance/exit. It wasn’t much, so I didn’t bother covering them. And we need to hide the inside trash cans better. Some people put their waste in a trash can we’d moved next to a Zero Waste station and covered with cardboard!
Food was Little Caesar’s pizza and breadsticks in cardboard boxes (sent to compost), and wings in foil pans. The other major contributor to waste was disposable water bottles from the finish line, with plastic wrap they were encased in. We also got a fair number of paper cups from the inside water station and the Tom’s coffee truck outside.
Thanks to my staffer Debbie and volunteer Brian, who stayed on top of things during the post-race rush, and Lori, who helped at the end with data collection and carrying equipment to the trailer. We were outta there at 11:15, leaving the school clean and its trash cans empty. (I’ve always wondered what the cleanup crew says when they come later and find there’s nothing to do.)
All loaded up in the HPR trailer! So nice not to have to worry about rentals anymore.
Landfill was a small handful of miscellaneous stuff like fast food wrappers and gum, which came to less than a pound. Another event with over 99 percent landfill diversion!
Happy Planet Running 