A lot of people yesterday during the Beirut Marathon become all of environmentally conscious and started sharing pictures of discarded water bottles on the side of the road. Tens of thousands of runners join the Marathon yearly, which means that tens if not hundreds of thousands of water bottles are consumed and it’s an unfortunate but common sight to see discarded bottles all over the place.
Nevertheless, a lot of environmental NGOs took part in this year’s edition and made sure all bottles were collected to be reused and/or recycled throughout the 5K & 8K races. This being said, bashing BMA for all these plastic bottles and even for road closures and traffic is uncalled for. However, I believe further initiatives need to be taken to make the race more sustainable and truly “green” as a lot of marathons around the world are banning plastic bottles all together.
All in all, the 16th Beirut Marathon edition is a great sporting event that we should all be proud of and encourage. The participants are running for unity, fun, glory, achievement, promoting wellness and healthy living, for causes and charitable organizations and more importantly for the benefit of Lebanon and all the Lebanese. Every year, we have new causes to run for, inspiring runners to look up to and new challenges to overcome.
So let’s spread positivity for a change and cut down on the negativity 🙂
