Grandma’s Marathon Becoming a Zero Waste Event

Grandma's Marathon is taking big steps to make the yearly gathering a zero waste event.

Grandma's Marathon has teamed up with one of its major sponsors, Waste Managment, to come up with initiatives to keep race weekend as eco-friendly as possible.

Some of the thing they are doing it:

• Collecting discard clothes along the race course and donating them to Goodwill.
• Runners can bring old running shoes to the Essentia Health Fitness Expo and have the shoes refurbished and donated to needy people around the world.
• Providing participants with "virtual goodie bags."
• Volunteers at the finish line making sure all recyclable and compostable waste is sorted into correct bins.
• Bottled water is Dasani packaged in recyclable bottles made with up to 30% plant-based material.

Grandma’s Marathon Executive Director Shane Bauer says that “Considering our place on the north shore, we have to make a dedicated effort to be conscious of the impact on our community and the environment that occurs when over 50,000 runners and spectators travel to our region during race weekend.”