London Marathon clean-up delivers personal best for recycling

Veolia’s London Marathon clean delivered a personal best for recycling, with over 350,000 plastic bottles collected for reprocessing and seeing the streets in the City of London, Westminster and Tower Hamlets safely reopened within six hours.

The race passed through six London boroughs, and Veolia managed the clean-up operation for three of them, making up the largest portion of the event’s clean-up task.

Veolia cleared all streets north of the River Thames, where they deliver street cleansing, recycling and waste collection on behalf of three local authorities.

Across the three locations, Veolia deployed over 40 vehicles and 120 staff and, based on the results from previous years, expects to have cleared over 350,000 plastic bottles from the race course.

All of the plastic bottles collected for recycling support the delivery of a sustainable solution for the Marathon and a clear win for London’s resources.

Pascal Hauret, Regional Director for Veolia London, said: “The London Marathon is a fantastic, yet challenging event for our teams. Tight deadlines for road openings make it essential for our crews to clear the streets quickly, whilst maintaining the safety of nearby crowds.”

“This year we’re delivering the largest portion of the clear-up task, covering streets in the City of London, Westminster, and Tower Hamlets. Our widespread presence will allow for greater efficiency between areas and also ensures more of the event’s plastic bottles are collected for recycling.”

“This is important to us as the UK’s current figures show that over 40 per cent of plastics bottles don’t make it to recycling centres. We’re pleased to be making the Marathon as sustainable as possible.”

The clean-up comes after the pre-marathon news that bottle belts, compostable cups, and biodegradable capsules would be used to help combat plastic waste.

700 runners trialled the new bottle belts, which were made from 90 per cent recycled materials, encouraged runners to carry their own water throughout the race.