The Irish Life Dublin Marathon takes place around the city on Sunday, October 30th. It will be the first to take place fully in person since 2019 and also the first to do so under the banner of sponsors Irish Life.

There will be a record field with the largest-ever entry of 25,000 coming from across the island of Ireland and from countries around the world.

Each day this week we will look at a different aspect of the race and the event, its importance to the economy of the city, its appeal as a sponsorship property, its importance in terms of sports tourism, and what the race experience will be like on the day.

Today we are taking a look at how it will be staged as one of the most sustainable major events to have taken place in the City.

There are many factors that go into this and below we list a number of the elements that have gone into the planning and which will set a new benchmark on how event organisers approach this hot topic for host cities, sponsors, and beyond.

Sustainability management has become an increasingly important consideration for the Irish Life Dublin Marathon organising committee, and it has introduced new measures this year to address sustainability concerns.

Goodie bags

The Irish Life Dublin Marathon goodie bags used to distribute items to participants after each race in the Irish Life Race Series are biodegradable, recyclable, and reusable. All leftover Goodie Bags from the finish of the Irace will be collected and used by Simon Community.

Baggage bags

The baggage bags used by runners to store their clothing during the marathon will be made from Oxo-degradable plastic for the first time.

Bottles

at present, about 10 percent of the bottles deployed on race day are recycled, and the remainder are used as fuel for power stations. This year, extra clean-up teams will be in place to collect bottles from the course in a timely manner, with support from the relevant local authorities. This will result in zero percent of the bottles from the event ending up in a landfill.

Lucozade Sport will be trialing fully compostable cups at this year’s marathon as part of their plans to drive sustainability at mass-participation sporting events.

Thornton Recycling

Race organisers will also employ the professional services of Thornton’s recycling to assist with the clean-up. Thorntons will treble the number of collection bins this year to enable the collection of clean bottles. The unused bottles are donated to local running clubs for their races.

Thorntons will also provide colour-coded bins to enable the segregation of recyclable streams, including paper, cardboard, plastics, cardboard, and all organics for composting and further diversion from landfills.

Clothing

All clothes discarded at the start will be collected by Liberty charity and re-used.

Digital

Race instructions and registration materials will be digital, not printed

Promotional material

All branding material, banners, and fixing material will be collected and reused

Power

All generators used will be fitted with either exhaust gas recirculation or a diesel particular filter, depending on the size of the generator.

 

Sustainability is built on small changes that prompt people to consider the bigger ones.  In that sense, this year’s Irish life Dublin Marathon will be a benchmark for major events with plenty of lessons to be learned in terms of how preparation in advance can lead to a better outcome.