The weather at this year’s RF Events Triceratops Tri couldn’t make up its mind at first. We went from hot and humid to a downpour, then as the race started, blue sky and a warm but reasonable evening. Our Zero Waste station and trailer even provided shelter to some folks for a while. (They declined to stay and help out.)
Fellow run club member Paul Dodd (right, yellow shirt) cheers on his son.
We set up the main Zero Waste station near the registration tent, and put large All Waste boxes in transition at Bike Out and Run Out. New this year were Gatorade bottles at the finish line. We didn’t get too many of them in our boxes, which likely meant the athletes drank some and took the rest home (they were large bottles).
Iki and Marilyn set up station #2 while I sit and watch. Yeah, that’s the ticket!
Our second station was near the Little Caesars pizza truck. It received some business, but not as much as I’d expected. One possible reason was what we discovered at takedown – people decided a grill near the lake was a trash can and covered it with pizza boxes and such. This has never happened before, but we’ll watch that spot for next time.
As usual, we gave the evening off to four park trash cans in the race area and even retrieved some recyclable items from them.
To make takedown easier, we cleaned up the nearby water stop early and swept transition just as they opened it for people to take their bikes. This allowed us to sort one set of bags and pick up small litter while there was a lot of daylight left.
Total waste was on par with last year, although compost was down and recycling was up. Landfill diversion was basically the same at 98.4 percent, with just under two pounds of tape, small plastic tabs from ankle tags, and some waxy paper. And one diaper, which was half the weight in itself.
The RF Events staff helped us out by bringing us cardboard, and the folks who unwrapped the medals put all the plastic wrap in a bag for us. Many thanks!
Aside from the aforementioned rogue trash can, all went smoothly, and we were packed up and done at 9:00. Thanks to interns Iki and Marilyn, who did their usual great job!
Happy Planet Running 