Ten years ago RF Events made the commitment to go Zero Waste, making their races as good for the environment as they are for the runners. The first Zero Waste event? Trail Marathon 2016. And now, nearly 300 events later, Happy Planet Running was there for Trail Marathon 2026, the first event we’ve done ten times.
The amount of waste and its makeup have changed over the years, but every year we’ve recycled or composted over 95 percent of it. Here’s a chart to show how the amount of total waste, and the percentages of compost, recycling, and landfill changed over that time.
This year the event returned to Silver Lake, with the start and finish lines back in their usual spots. We set up a table near registration, including our boxes of “free stuff” which we moved after race start into the beer garden. A second station went to the back of the beer garden, between the beer tent and the Little Caesars pizza truck.
Finish line food was pizza, along with bananas and snack bags. Love the compostable beer cups, with no need to rinse or dry. The individual pizza boxes were also composted. We also had a good bit of cardboard and nearly a full pail of Gu wrappers (which will go to TerraCycle).
A trail runner shows off the excellent hand-eye coordination they require.
The morning rush consisted of the 5-milers followed by those doing the half marathon, with the full marathon and 50K runners tricking in throughout the afternoon. Thank goodness I decided to bring along a box of discarded sweatshirts from Martian. The day started out cool and damp and never warmed up, so by the end all of them had been taken. Less stuff for me to take back is always good!
Reuse at work! Runners using our cardboard on the damp grass. And all those sweatshirts on the table were soon gone.
Last year, the aid station bags arrived very late in the afternoon, so this year I drove to the first two stations and collected their trash right as they closed. By the time the final trash arrived, we’d sorted everything else, saving a lot of time. We were able to weigh everything and be done before 5:00. It really helps that the event is cupless!
Many thanks to the morning team of Marilyn, Cole, Phil, and Melissa, and the afternoon team of Marilyn, Bridget, Sue, and Jen. They kept up with the onsite runner waste and dove right into the messy aid station bags. Great job!
Sue digs into an aid station bag while Bridget and Marilyn handle All Waste boxes.
Everything went well. Looking forward to many more years!
Happy Planet Running 