London Marathon Replaces Plastic Water Bottles With Edible Seaweed Pods

After the athletes cross the finish and excitement of any marathon has died down, what’s left is an aftermath of waste. Bottles and cups litter the course, raising questions about the environmental impact of the bottles and cups used for hydration and left tossed to the side.

This year, London Marathon officials are implementing measures to cut down on this waste—something they hope to expand upon in the future. They have a goal of zero waste by 2020, so a lot of changes will be made. And it will start with runners eating their water bottles.

Yep, eating their water bottles. But it’s not as gross as it sounds: Runners will be provided with seaweed capsules full of Lucozade Sport, an electrolyte drink, in place of bottles. The Ooho! 30mL capsules, produced by tech startup Skipping Rocks Lab in London, can be bitten into to release the liquid. Then, the capsules themselves can be eaten or spit out, since they are biodegradable.

Though this is not the first time runners have been provided with seaweed capsules instead of single-use cups, this will be the largest trial of the Ooho! capsules, according to race officials.

The seaweed capsules filled with Lucozade Sport will be provided at mile 23. There will be more than 30,000 edible Ooho seaweed capsules, which are biodegradable in four to six weeks if you are a little wary of eating them, according to Lucozade Sport. Additionally, three Lucozade Sport stations will use compostable cups.

How do the Ooho capsules work? You pop the pod, which will be handed out by volunteers in gloves, in your mouth against your cheek and bite down. It is similar to eating a cherry tomato, an article on the Lucozade Sport website explains.

Marathon officials have also announced other steps to help reduce waste, like scaling down to 19 drink stations from 26. That will help cut down on 215,000 plastic bottles on the course.

Additionally, the marathon has committed to ensuring zero waste to landfills by 2020, and is implementing other sustainable measures, like delivering digital-only race instructions and registration materials, instituting a trial to track how much water runners use over the course of the race, and introducing drop zones for runners to ditch their bottles to help with cleanup and ensure all bottles are recycled.

Other races, like the Xiamen Marathon and the Harrow Half Marathon have already gone plastic-free.

“We are passionate about the concept of Eliminate, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle, and are fully committed to reducing our environmental impact. We believe we run the best mass participation events in the world, and we want to match that by leading the world in mass participation event sustainability,” event director Hugh Brasher said in a release.

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