Under the motto "Ready for Air, Nature, Environment and Earth!" architect, environmental awareness coach and wastrepreneur Kai Miethig initiated the cooperation between the local recycling company Crown Industries and the Spartan Race organiser to collect all recyclables and compostables occurring from the races itself.
In total 1 full cage of cardboards, 2 cages full of plastic wrapping and bottles and 10 boxes of banana peels were collected at the finish area whereas 46 bags of bottles and caps were collected from the various tracks of the beast, super, sprint and kids races.
The initiative was welcomed by all athletes who disposed of their waste (bottles/banana peels) in different bins.
"Reaching the finishing area, where water and bananas were distributed, some athletes were exhausted and throw stuff in the wrong bin, but with some polite hints, they corrected their mistake and apologized as well welcomed the initiative," stated Kai Miethig, referring that in general, it was very cooperative and easy teamwork with the volunteers, organizers, and athletes involved.
The volunteers received a proper briefing and easy tasks prior to the races and were then "Ready for Air, Nature, Environment and Earth!".
With only 1 email and a few phone calls, this cooperative initiative was welcomed without any objection by the organizer and made it very easy possible, which could be a role model project for all races within Bahrain to avoid valuable material to not be collected separately and then send to landfill, which is a complete contradiction to the promotion of healthy lifestyle of the races but same time polluting the environment and not caring about the produced waste.
"Cooperation is very easy, but the race and event organizers need to be willing to join forces, start early with promotion and preparation to make waste management/segregation part of the race and stop giving excuses. It was so easy and a pleasure with Spartan Race and Crown industries to team up and cooperate."
EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE - IF PEOPLE WANT
"It was really great teamwork with all responsible parties involved and everyone was so graceful what we all have been achieved," said the spartan sprint race finisher, who was as well a volunteer, but used the race to gain new experience in racing as well as observing sport race organisation and the various waste occurring issues to provide better solutions and make each race event in the future a greener and more environmental friendly.
