Runners To Be Disqualified For Littering During Half Marathon

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Runners who chuck away their plastic bottles during a half marathon will face disqualification under new rules. 

The Conwy Half Marathon, taking place today, November 17, is the largest running event in north Wales.

The race is now in its eleventh year, and is expected to host around 3,000 runners. However, while it’s a great event for fitness and tourism, it’s not always good for the environment.

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As per the BBC, organisers of the half marathon say plastic was becoming an ‘increasing problem’ over the years. Therefore, as a way to deter runners from throwing their bottles away anywhere, new, strict measures have been introduced.

According to the Run Wales website, runners will also be ‘taken off the results if seen discarding their rubbish outside of a water stop or not with a marshal’.

The half marathon kicked off at 10am, right in front of Conwy Castle, with several roads being closed for the event.

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Run Wales is following a growing trend of environmental measures being taken to make events more eco-friendly. For example, in April this year, the London Marathon trialled several measures to reduce litter, such as compostable cups rather than plastic bottles at some stations and plastic bottles made wholly or partly from recycled plastic.

This came after clearing 47,000 plastic bottles from the streets in 2018, the BBC reported. At this year’s Cardiff Half Marathon, 100% recyclable plastic bottles were also used, according to the BBC.

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Just last week, organisers of the Bolton Marathon pledged to ditch plastic water bottles.

As per The Bolton News, organiser Richard Smith said: ‘We see and hear how frustrated runners get when they have to run through a sea of plastic and rubbish when racing. We think it’s time for that to change! First up – no plastic bottles!’

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Cameron Frew

After graduating from Glasgow Caledonian University with an NCTJ and BCTJ-accredited Multimedia Journalism degree, Cameron ventured into the world of print journalism at The National, while also working as a freelance film journalist on the side, becoming an accredited Rotten Tomatoes critic in the process. He’s now left his Scottish homelands and took up residence at UNILAD as a journalist.