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NYRR’s Sustainability Efforts at the TCS New York City Marathon

NYRR waist diversion station at a race.
Marathon week is here! This year, NYRR remains committed to minimizing the environmental impact of our events and are working hard to embed sustainability in all that we do. Here are some of the things we are doing leading up to and on race day.
 
Marathon-Week Sustainability Events

  • NYRR is hosting a plogging event on Saturday, November 4. The sold-out event will be led by NYRR coaches and joined by sustainability influencer and runner Tina Muir, NBA Staff, and EcoAthletes. Learn more about the event here.
  • NYRR is hosting a sustainability panel, Sustainability in Running: Climate Impact, on Thursday, November 2 at 6:00 p.m. on the Citizens Stage at the TCS New York City Marathon Expo Presented by New Balance.
  • Digital screens at the Expo will highlight sustainability initiatives from New Balance, Gatorade, and Volvo.
  • Runners and spectators can download the TCS New York City Marathon App Powered by Tata Consultancy Services and take a survey to find out their environmental impact score and information about sustainability.
  • The paint used at the Blue Line Painting Ceremony is upcycled from leftover paint collected in New York from PaintCare. (PaintCare makes it easy to recycle leftover paint. Households and businesses can take their unwanted, leftover paint to one of 2,400 drop-off sites.)

What We're Doing on Race Day

  • Nine waste diversion stations will be at the Start and Finish areas where 81 Green Team volunteers will be working together to help sort runners’ trash.
  • Gatorade cups used on the course are made from 100% bamboo and will be composted at a farm in upstate New York after the race.
  • New Balance race T-shirts are made from 100% recycled polyester.
  • The official pace car will be the new fully electric Volvo EX30, designed to have the smallest CO2 footprint of any Volvo to date.
  • Sustainability influencer and former elite marathon runner Tina Muir will be running the marathon in a skirt made from discarded materials such as gel and protein bar wrappers.
  • Discarded runner clothing will be donated to All Of Us Clothing. NYRR donated 10.4 tons of clothing at the 2022 TCS New York City Marathon.
  • For the 26.2 miles of blue line, 15 gallons of paint is left over from last year's marathon and 25 gallons will be upcycled from surplus paint from GDB. 

At New York Road Runners, our mission is to help and inspire people through running. That means doing our part to ensure that future generations, too, have access to clean air, green spaces, and a healthy world in which to run.

Author: NYRR Staff