Runners in race face littering disqualification

In a recent development, organisers of the recent Conwy Half Marathon in North Wales have threatened participants with disqualification if they are seen discarding their rubbish outside of a water stop or not with a race steward.

This follows the marked increase of single use plastic items in races in recent years and the problem of trying to clean up after races. This years London Marathon for example used 47,000 plastic bottles which had to be collected afterwards.

After the recent Dublin City Marathon, there were images on social media about all of the plastic bottles littering the streets of the capital. It's worth remembering that the vast majority of inhabitants of any city will have little or no interest in any running event and dumping rubbish everywhere is being seen as increasingly unacceptable.

Some race have trialed the use of edible sachets of water made from a natural seaweed product. Will this become the norm?