London Marathon distributes edible water capsules to reduce plastic waste

Thousands of bottles of edible water were distributed at the London Marathon today with the aim of reducing plastic waste.

The consequences of the marathon are usually a sea of ​​plastic waste while thirsty runners try to stay hydrated by drinking and throwing bottles of water as and when.

At the 2019 London Marathon, the organizers organized the delivery of seaweed-based edible pods to participants as they tackled the exhausting 26.2-mile course.

The bags, made by the young London company Skipping Rocks Lab, were made from a thin, natural algae membrane.

The Ooho! the capsules can be stitched to release the liquid inside and the lid can also be swallowed.

However, if runners do not want to eat the hose, they can throw it down because the pods are designed to biodegrade in six weeks, while it takes 450 years to break down plastic bottles.

"The marathon is an important step … we hope to demonstrate that it can be used on a large scale in the future," said Rodrigo Garcia Gonzalez, one of the founders of the startup, CNN.

This year's marathon, however, was not entirely free of plastic, with bottles of water available in stores along the road.

As part of the initiative to reduce unnecessary plastic waste, the organizers ensured that all distributed water bottles would be at least partly recycled plastic and that all discarded bottles would be collected and recycled.

In addition to efforts to reduce the number of bottles used, organizers are testing ways to recycle them more efficiently.

Using a "closed-loop" system, plastic bottles collected at Tower Hamlets, Greenwich, Southwark and Canary Wharf will be sent directly to a reprocessing plant for recycling to make new bottles.