THE ED ’ S DESK the ed ’ s desk by SEAN FALCONER
Sean Falconer
THE ED ’ S DESK the ed ’ s desk by SEAN FALCONER
The Debate Rages On
Here where I live in the Western Cape , quite a few road races have stopped supplying water to runners in plastic sachets , for ecological reasons . Instead , they use paper cups , and also urge runners to ‘ carry their own ,’ be it water in a bottle or hydration pack , or carry a refillable bottle or cup to use at refill stations . While many runners have embraced the call to reduce the single-use plastic ( SUP ) waste produced by our sport , there are others who are very unhappy with developments . As a result , after some very hot races in the Cape in recent weeks , I have seen a number of posts , discussions and rants on social media about the issue .
The complaints were mostly that cups are impractical ( hard to use while running and prone to spillage ), cause congestion at water stations that slows runners down , and some water stations ran out of water for backmarkers ( largely due to wastage by runners ahead of them ). The conclusion for many was that plastic sachets must be brought back . And when another local race did just that , supplying hundreds of thousands of ice cold sachets every three kays , the ‘ thank yous ’ flowed freely on social media !
I understand the feelings of the running community about sachets – about ease of use , not having to stop or slow down to drink , and the like – but I am also frustrated by the call to simply bring back sachets ... because , unfortunately , the running community ’ s track record over the last 40-plus years of sachet-use is far from complimentary . by races in their towns or communities , or worse , in local nature reserves or farms . These people literally asked me how I could condone this behaviour , how I could continue to support a sport that made such a mess of every road it ran through … and I was asked several times , are you not embarrassed to be part of this sport ? Sadly , the answer was yes .
That ’ s why Modern Athlete started our # RunClean campaign some years back , to try educate runners about better ways to do things , like using dustbins instead of throwing sachets on the road ( or worse , the bushes ), not tearing off sachet corners , carrying featherlight empty waste till a dustbin was found ( or to the finish ), and best of all , rather carrying their own . Many people embraced the campaign and changed their habits , and I applaud those runners . Others argued that their running time was more important than the environment , that they were creating paid ‘ cleaning ’ work for others by littering in races , and that it was their right to litter . Some even said that those of us campaigning against the mess left behind by races were welcome to come and pick it up if we felt so strongly about it .
Let ’ s Keep Talking
I have always tried to see things from both sides – the runners wanting water in races and to be able to run as fast as possible , and those looking to reduce waste
Really hoping we are not heading back to seeing all this mess at our races ! and protect the environment – so the conversations , debates , research and experiments with alternatives go on . But simply going back to sachets and continuing to produce countless tons of SUP waste each year , most of which will not get recycled , doesn ’ t seem a step forward to me , it seems like taking three steps back .
I hope that those calling for sachets at all races ( until viable alternatives are available ) will at least then make every possible effort to runclean , but I have already seen comment after comment on social media about runners tossing sachets next to cones and at kay markers instead of bins , or worse , into bushes and off cliffs . Hopefully that will change , and perhaps it will require stronger policing of rules . I mean , if technical officials can put half as much effort into dealing with littering , that goes into policing headphones / earbuds , then we would soon see a positive change in behaviour .
So , friends , let ’ s continue talking about the issue , and trying to find solutions , but hopefully with all sides listening to each other and trying to cooperate . # RunClean # CarryYourOwn # LessSUP
Sean Falconer
Downside of Sachets
There are a number of issues with sachets , including the fact that they are single-use , so each year the 800-plus road races across SA produce tons and tons of SUP waste , coupled with the amount of sachets ending up in the environment because they were tossed off the road , or blew off the road , coupled with the spat out sachet corners that never get picked up by the clear-up teams , and the carbon footprint of the production of more plastic SUP , etc .
But I have another gripe with sachets : As editor of a running mag , I lost count of the number of nonrunning members of the public phoning , mailing or texting me to complain about plastic waste left behind
Image : Chris Hitchcock , Courtesy Two Oceans Marathon
6 ISSUE 165 | www . modernathlete . co . za