Akron Marathon receives certification by the Council
for Responsible Sport

The Akron Marathon commits to consider the social, economic and environmental impacts while putting on a world-class event. We seek to incorporate environmentally responsible practices through a process of planning, deliberate actions, measuring progress, and continuous improvement. These practices will help to reduce waste and energy consumption, encourage economic advancement and healthy living.

The Akron Marathon has established the following practices to ensure we are being an environmentally responsible running event:

Pre-Race

  • Enhanced recycling efforts in the marathon office
  • Packaging from food-bag and goodie-bag stuffing sites is collected and sent to be recycled.
  • Reduced pre-race paper promotional materials
  • A no-Styrofoam policy has been introduced to encourage vendors not to use Styrofoam products.

Health & Fitness Expo

  • Local non-profits are promoted throughout the expo hall
  • Enhanced recycling stations throughout the expo hall
  • Composting stations at the pasta party
  • Recycled pallet boxes were purchased and the boxes will be taken back after this year’s race to be used for future races.
  • John S. Knight Center is accessible by mass transit and is located near two downtown hotels.

Start Line

  • Discarded clothing at the start line gets donated to a local charity
  • Water at the start line is distributed in recyclable cups instead of plastic bottles
  • Shuttle bus services are provided from race hotels and to the relay exchange points to provide mass transit opportunities

Course

  • Water is drawn from hydrants along the course rather than having trucks deliver the water in plastic jugs.
  • Water and POWERADE cups are collected and sent to be recycled
  • Mile markers and Kilometer markers are rented to returned to reduce waste
  • GU packets are collected and sent to Terracycle which is a company that creates new items from used food wrappers
  • Cardboard used at all water stations is recycled
  • To help protect our watershed we use portable toilets that have T Fresh Deodorizer STF 4000 which is a biodegradable product and poses no harm to the environment according to the EPA. The toilet paper used in the portable toilets is also biodegradable.

Finish Line

  • Composting containers are provided to collect banana peels and other food scraps
  • Enhanced recycling stations will have individually labeled recycle bins to collect food wrappers to be sent to Terracycle to be turned into new items.
  • D-Tag collection bins will be provided for relay runners to recycle their D-tags from their shoes
  • Heatsheets will be collected to be recycled
  •  Relay wrist bands will be collected and sent to a local school to be turned into an art project
  • Left over food is donated to a local food bank

Kids Fun Run

  • Enhanced recycling stations available throughout the event
  • Composting available for apple cores and other food scraps
  • Free event to give every child the opportunity to participate

Post Race Assessment 2012

Diversion rate for waste materials during the 2012 Akron Marathon:

77.7% of all waste was diverted from the landfill. There was a total of 5.63 tons of material that were either recycled or composted throughout the event.

Carbon Footprint traveling to the Akron Marathon for 2012:

CO₂ Emissions for Vehicle and Air Passenger combined equals 212.7901 metric tons

-Air Passenger Miles Traveled – 272500.2 which equals 141.9999 metric tons

-Vehicle Miles Traveled – 167277.6 which equals 70.79028 metric tons

212.79 metric tons of CO2 emissions is equivalent to:

23,855 gallons of gasoline consumed

485 barrels of oil consumed

electricity use of 26.5 homes for one year

energy use of 18.4 homes for one year

 

Water Footprint for the 2012 Akron Marathon:

A total of 7,730 gallons of water were used as part of the 2012 Akron Marathon

-4,424 gallons of water were used at the fluid stations along the course

-1,956 gallons of water were used for street cleaning

-1,350 gallons of water were used for finisher’s fluid at the finish line and at the relay

exchange points along the course

*As a way to conserve water, fluid cups are filled half full to reduce spillage and unnecessary waste. This process saved approximately 4oz per cup. There are 18 fluid stations along the course with 107,000 cups divided among the stations. With 4oz of water being saved with each cup that equals 3,344 gallons of water saved during the event.