It's not going to be easy becoming a plastic free athlete. Athletic events have some of the biggest environmental footprints. According to the Chatanooga Times Free Press "More than 20,000 plastic water bottles and 150,000 aid station cups were used during last Chatanooga Ironman, according to race officials."
If you ever attended an Ironman event you can honestly agree that there is a huge amount of waste generated. Not to mention plastics and nonrecyclable garbage. It is disturbing to think that we as athletes contribute to this waste.
Even if there are more recycling options offered at these events we all know that there is a definite stall in recycling. Since 2018 China has halted accepting our North American trash and other countries are now turning it away. Unfortunately, while we think we are doing a good deed the fact is we are still contributing to this catastrophe.
Outside of events, athletes create waste with Wheel tires, nutritional packaging and clothing. The recycling industry just can't catch up and there are so many reasons for this.
As athletes, we can at least try to eliminate our waste. In this article, we hope to start a discussion on this topic and generate ideas within our community. Maybe one day we can honestly be called a plastic free athlete.
Sports Nutrition Plastic Evil
Plastic, plastic, plastic! From micro packaging, supplement bags and containers they all add up over a year. Just think of five years how much our use of sports supplements adds to the waste. Here are a few things we can do to help lower our environmental footprint as athletes.
Make Your Own Gels
I can honestly say already a whole food approach is not only better for us but the planet. We still need to purchase reusable containers but at least we aren't using single-use plastics as often. These containers can be found at local running stores and if they don't you can always push them to sell and promote there use.
If you look at how to make energy gels online there are hundreds of recipes. You can even customize them to meet your personal needs.
Bike Tires and Tube Recycling
The number of Tubes we go through in a training year can be insane. Unless you go tubeless but even that has its headaches. None the less, depending on where you live there are a few places that recycle old tires and tubes. For example, this one in Victoria BC from the CRD. It all depends on where you live but some tire and tube recyclers turn your tires into asphalt or fiber and nylon-like these products.
Cleanup material
Carpet
Fiberglass
Concrete
Stucco
Reusing old plastic sounds great and makes us feel like we are doing our part. However, it is creating an even worse problem. We explain in Clothing and Kits below. Just watch the video it explains it better.
Protein Powder
Not many companies have a buy-back program for containers but they should. Maybe they should implement an incentive to bring back plastic containers. Kinda like the bottle deposit program. Even better a refill program refills from bulk. I'm not sure why we don't see this already but I hope this becomes a new norm.
Or you can make your protein recovery drink from whole foods. Our elder athletes never consumed designer protein powders like we do today. Maybe making our own protein and recovery smoothie is the way to go to be more plastic free?
Clothing and Kits
The amount of microplastics our workout clothing release into the oceans is horrendous. Our workout gear is made from synthetic petroleum-based products called microfibers.
The Florida Microplastic Awareness Project recently tested more than 950 water samples around the state, from the northeast in Jacksonville all the way down to the southern tip of Key West. Microfibers made up 83 percent of the plastics identified, more than any other type. Huffington Post
There are beta recycling programs but unfortunately, not many people want second-hand workout gear. I don't blame them at all and I would pity the fool who wore my old gear. I'm not sure what we can do about this issue and haven't found anything on the web. If you have any thoughts leave a comment below.
"Return It" textile recycling program in British Columbia Canada Only.
Running Shoes
Runners can go through a pair of shoes every three months or 500 to 600 miles. This is crazy and most of the time they are just tossed.
Nike has a reuse a shoe program that takes old runners and transforms them into new materials. Clothing is one of the top criminals when it comes to an earthly disaster. Kudos to Nike for doing something or at least trying.
In the good old days, we ran in Converse sneakers or even better barefoot or sandals. It can be hard for kids and even adults to afford a decent pair of runners. The everyday price for a shoe is $100 plus and now they are entering $200 plus.
This shoe lasted less than 5 months
One World Running will take old shoes or even new if lucky and give them to people in need in the USA and around the world. Canvas for your local running store to take shoes in for your local people in need or have them contact One World Running. Ironman Foundation backs them up and so should we all.
A Plastic Solution
All these ideas and partial solutions are just a bandaid. They don't solve the problem that we as a planet got ourselves into. We are so dependant on the packaging and products the argument seems hypocritical. What we have to remember is that our civilization wasn't always like this.
What we can do is take our technological smarts and find a way to make life smart, simple and safe for all living beings. Let's continue this conversation and begin to vote with our purchasing habits.
As athletes, we are ambassadors to the world and protectors of the trails and water that protect us. Using our influence is needed more than ever to make changes and create solutions that aren't just bandaids. May the force be with you, plastic free athlete.
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