Saving Our Environment One Decision At A Time

3 Tips To Make Clean-Up Easy After A Marathon

If you're involved in the planning of a marathon that is being held in your community, you might have already volunteered to help with cleanup. Even though you might be happy to help, you might be a bit worried about just how much work is going to be involved.

1. Rent a Dumpster

If your marathon is going to be a big event with a lot of people, then it's only natural that a lot of trash is going to be generated. You're going to need a way to dispose of all of this trash, so rent a dumpster for the event if you haven't already made arrangements to rent one. Then, you won't have to wonder what you're going to do with all of the big bags of trash when you're in the middle of cleanup.

2. Place Trash Cans Along the Marathon Route

Marathoners and the people who are cheering them on are probably going to have disposable water bottles and other things that need to be tossed in the trash. If you don't provide them with a place to throw their trash away, then it's probably going to end up on the ground for the cleaning crew to pick up later. This is particularly going to be an issue with those who are actually participating in the marathon, since they aren't going to want to go off-track and throw off their times by looking for a garbage can in the middle of the event. Because of this, you should think ahead and set up trash cans all along the marathon route. Trash cans should be easily accessible for both those who are participating in the marathon and those who are just watching, but they should be set up in a way so that they aren't in the way of those who are participating.

3. Gather Up Lots of Help

Particularly for bigger marathon events, the mess can be pretty overwhelming. Make sure that you have a big enough crew dedicated to help with picking up trash, sweeping and otherwise cleaning up along the marathon route and in the spectator areas both while the event is going on and immediately after it's over. There might be more support and interest in your community in regards to volunteering than you realize, so don't hesitate to ask the people in your community if they would mind volunteering to help with after-marathon clean-up.