Dragon boat races and the like must have proper waste management plans
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Ahead of World Environment Day today, it was very disappointing to see the general lack of concern regarding waste at the
Stanley dragon boat races last Saturday.
Plastic Free Seas did the best we could with a last-minute mini collection to salvage at least some of the plastic bottles and metal cans for recycling, but only a small number of people brought them to us. We collected only 963 drink bottles and 758 drink cans, which is a fraction of what would have been used throughout the day.
For the past few years, Sun Life, as a sponsor of the event, engaged The Green Earth to do a large-scale collection of recyclables at the Stanley races. Unfortunately, Sunlife was not the sponsor this year and recycling did not appear to be a priority at the event. Many plastic bottles (which should have been avoided in the first place), cans and cardboard boxes ended up going to landfill unnecessarily this year.
It is unimaginable that such a large gathering of people for an outdoor event, particularly one at the beach, can be allowed to happen without convenient and sufficient provision of water refills and proper waste management in place.
In order to reduce waste from these types of events, we strongly recommend the following.
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