{"id":2389,"date":"2018-11-05T08:25:10","date_gmt":"2018-11-05T08:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uniofglos.blog\/eventsglos\/?p=2389"},"modified":"2018-11-15T13:48:57","modified_gmt":"2018-11-15T13:48:57","slug":"plastic-waste-crisis-what-can-sport-events-managers-do-to-produce-a-plastic-free-sport-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uniofglos.blog\/eventsglos\/2018\/11\/05\/plastic-waste-crisis-what-can-sport-events-managers-do-to-produce-a-plastic-free-sport-event\/","title":{"rendered":"Plastic waste crisis – What can sport events managers do to produce a plastic-free sport event?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why it is a contemporary issue?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Masses of plastic waste, which is usually left behind\u00a0at sport events, has raised\u00a0concern amongst\u00a0both event managers and event\u00a0attendees\u00a0due\u00a0to the impact\u00a0that this has upon the environment. It is never hard to notice, or you may have already experienced single-use plastic\u00a0products everywhere, especially within the event industry. For example, 750 000 of plastic water bottles\u00a0are estimated to be collected after\u00a0a London Marathon.\u00a0This is equivalent to\u00a07 tonnes of waste.<\/p>\n

Are sport events\u00a0contributing creating a plastic planet? Is it possible to reduce single-use plastic products at sport events? Are there any solutions?\u00a0Keep reading if you want to be inspired how to run a \u2018plastic-free\u2019 sport event.<\/p>\n

What is going on?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Plastic is becoming one of the\u00a0significant\u00a0environmental issues of our time.\u00a0 Scientists reveal the quantity of plastic pollution in the ocean is set to treble within a decade.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0UK\u00a0Government has invested around\u00a0\u00a361.4 million to stop plastic waste from entering the ocean, they also plan\u00a0to\u00a0ban plastic straws and cups, which are the\u00a0common products at sport events. However, this is\u00a0only the very first step\u00a0of the Government to help with the plastic waste crisis and there could be more in the future.\u00a0Therefore, the issue has\u00a0become a new challenge, not only to sport events managers but to both\u00a0participants and\u00a0attendees.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Source: Pixabay<\/p><\/div>\n

An Interesting fact\u00a0about recycling plastic<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\"\"

Source: Plastic Free Inspiration<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

The popularity of plastic usage led to the promotion of plastic-recycling , however, lack of education mislead the people into assuming that the plastic is recycled and\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 re-established as a new product. In reality, only 9% of the recyclable plastic actually gets recycled. Therefore, event managers should carefully consider the products used at their events or select alternative materials.<\/p>\n

<\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

So what\u00a0can sport events do to save the planet from the\u00a0plastic waste crisis?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Although it might sound impossible to eliminate the existence of plastic, especially in major sport events, there are various methods that have been trialled to control and reduce the plastic waste as well as to educate event attendees.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Source: Jorge Morales Piderit<\/p><\/div>\n

1.Edible packaging:<\/h3>\n

Edible packaging\u00a0is made from seaweed, from drinks to food wrappers and plates, which can be eaten or biodegrade naturally in four to six weeks.<\/p>\n

Skipping Rocks Lab created the Ooh packaging<\/a>, which were filled with Lucozade Sport drinks and gels, were successful used at Richmond Marathon and Tough Mudder in West Sussex.<\/p>\n

Evoware created seaweed-based packaging<\/a>, which can be used as food sachets, wraps, cups and also to package the non-food based contents such as cutlery, toothpicks, etc.<\/p>\n

The benefits of Ooho and Evoware packaging are the environmental advantage of avoiding plastic packaging and they are\u00a0virtually tasteless and odourless.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Source: Evoware and Skipping Rocks Lab<\/p><\/div>\n

2.\u00a0Recyclable products<\/h3>\n

Bamboo straws<\/a> and bamboo cutlery<\/a>\u00a0can be recycled and reused. They are extremely strong, durable and affordable, which are perfect for most sport events that\u00a0provide catering.<\/p>\n

Plastic bottles can be replaced by recyclable or reusable cups and bottles. For example, London Marathon organisers tried to reduce the amount of plastic bottles used by putting out 90 000 recyclable cups at three drink stations along the 26.2 mile route.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Source: Pixabay and Shutterographry<\/p><\/div>\n

3. Banning plastic products<\/h3>\n

Some\u00a0events managers have gone further\u00a0by eliminating the presence of plastic products within their events.<\/p>\n

For example, London\u2019s Kia Oval cricket grounds have banned the use of plastic straws and introduced compostable coffee cups. Likewise, the organisers of The Commonwealth Games, which were held on Australia\u2019s Gold Coast, banned the use of helium balloons.<\/p>\n

4. Replacing, replacing and replacing<\/h3>\n
\"\"

Source: Plastic Free Inspiration<\/p><\/div>\n

If\u00a0an outright ban of plastic\u00a0is not possible, replacing and using alternative options are worth considering.<\/p>\n

For example, Twickenham Stadium\u00a0has introduced reusable Fan Cups to replace disposable and plastic cups. Additionally, Croyde and Georgeham invented the first plastic-free sporting event series starting with the Croyde Ocean Triathlon. They replaced energy gel sachets with locally made flapjacks and protein balls and plastic bottles with compostable Vegware paper cups.<\/p>\n

There are various companies that provide reusable and recyclable products, here\u00a0is a few\u00a0samples\u00a0for your consideration: Stainless steal bottles,<\/a>\u00a0personalised cups<\/a>,\u00a0eco-friendly bottles<\/a>,\u00a0biodegradable plates<\/a>\u00a0and Ecoffee Cup<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/h2>\n

Plastic waste is considered\u00a0to be\u00a0one of the greatest problems that humans are facing in their contemporary life. As sport events managers,\u00a0we are not immune from this issue and therefore should we\u00a0try harder and put our priorities in the right order\u00a0to\u00a0achieve plastic-free sport events by addressing the following questions.<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Do you think it is possible to control the plastic waste within sport events?<\/em><\/li>\n
  • What changes will plastic-free sport events can make?<\/em><\/li>\n
  • Do you find these given methods helpful?<\/em><\/li>\n
  • What are your alternative solutions that you find effective?<\/em><\/li>\n
  • Who is the ultimately responsible for helping to solve this problem, is it sport events managers or the participants or spectators?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    We would love\u00a0to know\u00a0your thoughts, please share them with\u00a0us in the comment section below<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Why it is a contemporary issue? Masses of plastic waste, which is usually left behind\u00a0at sport events, has raised\u00a0concern amongst\u00a0both event managers and event\u00a0attendees\u00a0due\u00a0to the impact\u00a0that this has upon the environment. It is never hard to notice, or…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":2511,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-autumn-2018"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/uniofglos.blog\/eventsglos\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/23\/2018\/10\/8108460657_a4dab8a1df_o.jpg?fit=2000%2C1333&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniofglos.blog\/eventsglos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniofglos.blog\/eventsglos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniofglos.blog\/eventsglos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniofglos.blog\/eventsglos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniofglos.blog\/eventsglos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2389"}],"version-history":[{"count":74,"href":"https:\/\/uniofglos.blog\/eventsglos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2389\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2872,"href":"https:\/\/uniofglos.blog\/eventsglos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2389\/revisions\/2872"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniofglos.blog\/eventsglos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uniofglos.blog\/eventsglos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniofglos.blog\/eventsglos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uniofglos.blog\/eventsglos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}