A staggering 96% of all the waste that was thrown away at the Cardiff University Half Marathon has been recycled.

A total of thirteen tonnes of mixed recycling; food waste; cardboard; wood and silt was collected by council staff on behalf of the event organiser - Run4Wales.

Recycling pods were put at both the start and finish race village, with staff on hand at each pod to ensure the correct materials were being put in each container.

The waste collected was then recycled through different processes and at different locations.

        The food waste collected was processed at the Anaerobic Digestion plant on Rover Way to create green electricity.

        The mixed recycling was separated at Cardiff's Materials Recycling Facility and baled for reuse.

        The waste collected from the mechanical street cleansing vehicles was sent to the de-watering plant at Lamby Way, where the recyclable material was separated from the silt. The silt was then recycled by Neil Soils and the recyclable material was recycled.

       The remaining 4% of the waste was then sent to a modern energy recovery facility on Ocean Way.

Cllr Michael Michael, Cabinet Member for Clean Streets, Environment and Recycling said:

"Large events such as this are an excellent opportunity to recycle as much waste as possible. The fact that 96% of the waste could be recycled, shows what can be done and I would like to thank all the staff involved.

"The council competes against other private companies to secure contracts for large events. Through this new way of working, we hope that other event organisers will see the benefits in using the Council's commercial services."

For more information on Cardiff's Commercial Waste Services, please visit:  https://www.cardiffcommercialwaste.co.uk/
 
Photo credit: Riley Rosser