Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 124, November 2019 | Page 8

# RUNCLEAN
Open Letter
to Runners
Who Litter
By Sean Falconer,
Editor of Modern Athlete
Dear Littering Runners
There’s never a dull moment, as the old saying goes, in the anti-litter campaign,
and the feedback and comments we regularly receive regarding the #runclean
campaign can be quite illuminating...
SO, PLEASE ALLOW ME TO LAY OUT A CASE FOR REDUCING THE LITTER
PROBLEM IN OUR SPORT.
Modern Athlete launched the #runclean campaign about three years ago
because we wanted to use our platforms and influence to bring about positive
change in the behaviour of the running community, both for the good of the
environment and the sport of running. We identified that the litter problem was
getting worse as the sport grew, and that it was leading to increasingly negative
press for the sport, turning local communities, venues, officialdom, sponsors,
supporters and volunteers against or away from the sport.
We predicted that sooner or later a town, municipality, conservation body, etc
would deny a race permission to take place due to the littering by runners.
That actually nearly happened to the Two Oceans Marathon this year. The
community members along the route who objected to this littering have been doing
so for years already, and even one of the biggest races in the country had to listen,
and promise to do better.
#runclean is an educational campaign, asking runners to get on board with a
greener approach to the sport. We have not campaigned for the total banning of
• Some people say we don’t do enough, or are not making headway fast
enough, to stop the continued littering. Some of these people are non-
runners, and would happily see events cancelled to make their point.
• More comments are that there are bigger problems in the world, so we
should just drop it already. Others say that in South Africa many people are
more concerned about survival, i.e. just finding work and putting food on
the table, and therefore cannot be expected to care about littering or plastic
waste in the oceans. It isn’t a priority.
• On a related note, one argument is that there is so much more plastic waste
reaching the oceans than created by runners, so go solve that first... and
leave the runners their sachets in the meantime.
• Then we get comments from elite coaches who say their athletes can’t race
flat-out and also be expected to aim for a dustbin, let alone stop for a cup
or a refill, so sachets and what we call ‘legalised littering’ simply MUST be
allowed in road running.
• Next come backmarkers who say they are only just capable of making cut-off
times in races, and therefore cannot afford the extra weight of carrying
water, nor the time to stop for refilling, therefore they want plastic sachets.
• The mind-blowing comments are the ones from runners who say they are
creating jobs by littering during races. Or that they didn’t know they
should not litter, because they were not warned not do so by a leaflet in
their goodie bag!
• Last but not least are the people who argue that anti-litter campaigners also
consume plastic products, and therefore we have no right to point fingers
about plastic waste...
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ISSUE 124 NOVEMBER 2019 / www.modernathlete.co.za