St. Michael’s Rowing Club Urban Run and Limerick City and County Council mark ReUse month with a Limerick first. This year’s St. Michael’s Rowing Club (SMRC) Urban Run is going to be a Zero Waste Race.
Organisers of the run, which takes place this Sunday (7 October 2018), in conjunction with Limerick City and County Council have taken on a reuse challenge and committed to a zero waste run!
The SMRC Urban Run will be Limerick’s first zero waste 10k! and marks the launch of ReUse Month, which will have events taking place over the next few weeks to promote re-using, re-purposing, or upcycling.
The decision to have a zero waste race follows last year’s very successful run after which SMRC members had vivid memories of the many plastic bottles they had to pick up throughout the course.
Many of the bottles only had a couple of sips taken out of them. Club Captain Brian Richardson felt the need to do something and contacted Limerick City and County Council’s Environment Awareness Officer for guidance and assistance.
Both have been working in partnership to ensure this year’s event eliminates/significantly reduces plastic bottle waste.
How will they do it?
- All serious 10km contenders have been asked to bring their own selfwatering pouches
- The 5km race will have no water station on the route
- The 10km station will have one watering station at the half-way point
- This station will be run by SMRC volunteers – and have #RunReuseRefill glasses which will be filled by volunteers. Another team of volunteers will be further down from the water station with large ‘skip’ bags and they will encourage runners to put the reusable glasses in the bag
- The glasses will be returned to the SMRC clubhouse to be washed and stored for the next time they are needed
Limerick City and County Council has invested in #RunReuseRefill cups and they will be made available to other volunteer groups for similar races (terms and conditions will apply).
Mayor of the City and County of Limerick, Cllr James Collins said: “This is a fantastic initiative and it combines two important aspects of our lives – keeping fit and helping to keep the environment clean. I want to applaud St. Michael’s Rowing Club for doing something about the amount of rubbish left following last year’s run and help make a difference for our city and our environment.
“I would encourage other clubs and groups to get on board and do the same.”
Brian Richardson, St. Michael’s Rowing Club Captain said: “St. Michael’s Rowing Club is conscious of respecting and celebrating the fabulous resource that is the Shannon River. This is just one way that we have decided we can help by reducing the amount of disposable plastic bottles required in our urban run – reducing the need to plastic bottles of water and reducing the amount of litter they need to collect after the run. It’s a win-win situation for all, our environment, St. Michael’s Rowing Club and Limerick.”
Sinead McDonnell, Environment Awareness Officer with Limerick City and County Council said: “We are delighted to support St. Michael’s Rowing Club with this fantastic reuse initiative. It is wonderful to see a club taking on an environmental issue and coming up with solutions and being prepared to trial them. The #RunReuseRefill glasses will be available for other similar initiatives across the city and county.
“A case study on the event is planned with the aim of seeing what has worked and what hasn’t and how to improve the initiative in the future. It will also be used to inform the environmental policy within the council for similar scale runs in the future.”