Water bottles replaced by edible water capsule to reduce waste in London Marathon
The Ooho! Capsules can be bitten to release the liquid inside and the cover can also be swallowed.
LONDON (Web Desk) - In a bid to reduce plastic waste, the athletes were given edible water bottles at the London Marathon on Sunday.
Usually the thirsty runners dump water bottles on the path as they go which results in a sea of plastic bottles there. But for the 2019 London Marathon, organisers arranged for participants to be handed edible pods made of seaweed extracts as they tackled the gruelling 26.2-mile route.
The Ooho! Capsules can be bitten to release the liquid inside and the cover can also be swallowed.
However, if runners do not want to eat the casing, they can throw it on the floor as the pods are designed to biodegrade within six weeks, compared to the 450 years it takes for plastic bottles to decompose.
This year’s marathon was not entirely plastic-free though, with water bottles available at shops along the route.
As part of the initiative to reduce unnecessary plastic waste, organisers have guaranteed that all water bottles handed out will be at least partially made of recycled plastic, and that all discarded bottles will be collected and recycled.
As well as efforts to cut the number of bottles in use, organisers are testing ways of recycling them more effectively.
