This year’s Pterodactyl Tri had good news and bad news for the Zero Waste team. The good news is the low amount of landfill – just under two pounds – and a smooth event, both for the athletes and the team. And I remembered to bring Zero Waste Rex! Which is the bad news, because he had a leak and barely lasted fifteen minutes at his post by Ground Zero. Sigh. Next time!
Sir, I’m here to sample your DNA. One arm or one leg should do.
As usual, the main station was set up next to registration. The pizza truck returned to parking close by, so our finish area station was more central than at the Triceratops. We set up two tables back to back and put All Waste boxes there. Six park trash cans were relocated and got some time off until the race was over.
Lucy and Liz at work while poor ZW Rex slowly goes extinct.
Second station in party area. I think he deserves a medal for that shirt alone.
Main waste captured was Little Caesars pizza boxes (composted), finish line water bottles, cups for water and Gatorade cups, and small plastics, with a hefty helping of cable ties when the fencing is taken down at the end. Compost was up from last year due to the pizza boxes, and higher attendance, but landfill was down.
Transition area doesn’t capture a lot of waste, but there’s a lot of small litter to pick up, mainly the tiny white tabs that peel off the ankle tags. So we went through transition on a periodic basis, picking up those tabs so we wouldn’t have to do that at the end, when it’s dark and we all just wanna go home.
They have all the fun, and we get to clean up after them.
Also to save time at the end, we took back some early waste from the nearby water stop and sorted it immediately. A good improvement for future races. The bags from the other station came back late, so they got sorted post-event.
Just one improvement to suggest. Fix Zero Waste Rex for the T-Rex Tri in August.
Happy Planet Running 