News article
Circularity a key focus in 2024 for London Marathon Events
London Marathon Events (LME) will work with the Salvation Army Trading Company to collect discarded participant clothing across its portfolio of participation events.
The Salvation Army Trading Company is the trading arm of church and charitable organisation, The Salvation Army. Collected clothing will be taken to The Salvation Army processing centre for sorting and distribution, to be resold, reused or recycled.
Volunteers will be collecting discarded clothing throughout this year’s events, including Brighton Marathon, TCS London Marathon, Ford RideLondon, The Big Half, The Vitality London 10,000 and The Royal Parks Half.
“We are fully committed to reducing our environmental impact and we’re working to introduce more initiatives every year to achieve this,” explained Kate Chapman, Head of Sustainability at LME.
“We are fully committed to reducing our environmental impact and we’re working to introduce more initiatives every year to achieve this."
“Depending on the weather conditions, on some occasions many thousands of participants in our events will discard clothing as they move towards the Start line.
“Our new partnership with The Salvation Army means this clothing will be collected, sorted, sent for resale and reuse, or – if no longer in a condition to be reused, reprocessed through their innovative ‘Fibersort’ technology which creates more opportunities for garments to be repurposed and diverted from landfill or incineration.”
The scheme forms part of LME’s new sustainability initiatives for this year, with a particular focus on lowering carbon emissions, cutting waste and improving circularity.
“We’re delighted to work alongside London Marathon Events, aligning our shared commitment to supporting the environment by utilising our textile innovations to repurpose unwanted clothing across a number of events this year,” added Richard Shea, Service Development Manager at the Salvation Army Trading Company.
Circular economy in sport is a hot topic, given its reliance on specialist fashion and vast quantities of equipment. You can read Global Sustainable Sport’s feature on circularity in sport, here.
Image: Joe Toth for London Marathon Events