Another March means another St. Patrick’s Day, and that means another Corktown Races at Roosevelt Park in Detroit. Over 2,500 people showed up to drink beer and do a little running on the side, and once again, Happy Planet Running was there to make sure it was all sustainably enjoyed.
While this was the fourth year we provided Zero Waste services for Corktown, the race was under new management so I expected a bit of the unexpected, as it were. The first happened right after I arrived and saw trash cans being set out all over the race area. After a quick meeting with the race director we got the situation resolved and we set up as usual.
Our main Zero Waste station was in its usual place just after the water and food tents, and a second just around the corner in a high-traffic area. We covered park trash cans in the immediate vicinity and placed All Waste boxes near them. In the beer garden we set up a manned station at the exit and an All Waste box near the porta-potties. All Waste boxes were also placed in the registration tent and vendor tent, and checked and rotated out as they filled up.
Our main Zero Waste station during the post-5K rush.
Our station in the beer garden was a popular destination, in particular cuz you weren’t allowed to leave with beer!
We walked the start line several times, picking up any litter we found, and gave the food truck an All Waste box. We also picked up the occasional water bottle left behind and any other litter we saw in the race area.
Armed and dangerous! Cole patrols the starting line for lurking litter.
The main source of waste remained cardboard at just over 275 lbs. although it was half that of last year’s 535 lbs. With attendance basically the same, I am not sure of the reason. Other recycling – water bottles, plastic beer cups and waxed water cups, and such – was more or less the same, and we nearly filled the 10-yard recycling dumpster from Unlimited Recycling brought in for the purpose. Organics were down slightly at 143 lbs. Landfill was also down from 7.3 lbs. to 6.8 lbs. and we came up just shy of 99 percent landfill diversion, composting or recycling 613 of the 620 lbs. total waste processed.
Results by waste type over the four years HPR has done Zero Waste for Corktown.
Plastic bags and wrap continue to be a large contributor to waste volume, if not weight. We had enough to fill two 96-gallon carts. Everything seemed to come wrapped in plastic, even the 4-pack safety pins used to secure race bibs to clothes. There is a big opportunity here to reduce overall plastic use.
As with last year, the landfill consisted of a single bag, its biggest contributor some pallet wrap contaminated by dirt and coffee. Better handling of that will shrink that bag by a lot!
Me (Jeff) holding the SBoT (Single Bag o’ Trash), our standard!
Our team was a bit undersized with two of my staffers calling in sick, but Cole and Bridget stepped up big time, and volunteers Chris and Cassie held down the beer garden. Also thanks to volunteer Carol who helped weigh the recyclables and haul them to the dumpster. Great job, everyone!
Bridget, Cassie, and Cole at the main station. Team Terrific!
Thanks also to the guys staffing the food and water tents who broke down their cardboard and brought it to the station for weighing. They saved us a lot of time! And thanks to the volunteers who picked up the cut cable ties at takedown. We gave them a pail and they brought us the collected ties, which will go to TerraCycle along with the other specialty recycling including snack bags, Gu wrappers, hand warmers, and the beer tabs torn off the race bibs.
One disappointing semi-unexpected twist happened at the end, when two large black bags of mixed waste showed up. Every time I think I have all the waste sources pinned down, I miss a couple. The bags were sorted post-event (thanks to staffer Debbie for her help with that).
Finally thanks to the Detroit Free Press Marathon for keeping us on to make this race sustainable for a fourth consecutive year.
Happy Planet Running 