Australia’s largest ever marathon saw over 37,000 people take to the streets of Melbourne on Sunday 13 October – and for the first time, a new initiative meant cups from the event could be recycled. As the official sustainability partner of the event, Detpak supplied RecycleMeTM paper cups for all race participant’s drinks.
RecycleMeTM is Detpak’s revolutionary takeaway cup with a next generation lining and a dedicated collection network. The RecycleMeTM System, endorsed by Planet Ark, has enabled the cups collected from this year’s running course to be recycled, allowing the valuable paper fibres to live again.
Like a marathon – there is a lot of work involved in developing a truly sustainable solution for takeaway cups, which is why Detpak spent more than three years investigating new linings to use in its recyclable cups.
“We were looking for a long-term solution for takeaway coffee cups and the RecycleMeTM program is one step closer to contributing to global environmental change,” says Detpak General Manager of Marketing and Innovation, Tom Lunn.
In a bid to continually improve the environmental impact of the Melbourne Marathon, organisers approached Detpak to assist with a sustainable solution for the thousands of drinks supplied to runners on the course.
Festival Director, Marcus Gale remarked on the record participation numbers in 2019 as well as new partnership with Detpak. “Today marks the biggest Marathon in the event’s 42-year history, in fact it will now be recorded in the history books as the largest ever marathon staged in Australia.”
“Working with Detpak and the RecycleMeTM initiative means that we can also celebrate the Melbourne Marathon 2019 as Australia’s largest marathon to recycle paper water cups.” Gale said.
More than 50 trees worth of paper fibre has been saved thanks to the over 200,000 RecycleMeTM paper cups collected during the 2019 Melbourne Marathon, representing 74% of total cups used. All the cups disposed of in the bins and at drink stations during the running festival were delivered to a Shred-X facility in Victoria, where they were counted. The cups will be processed by Shred-X, ready to be recycled into new paper products, that can then be recycled up to 7 times*.
“We are excited to support Detpak and the Melbourne Marathon in improving the sustainability of the festival,” said Shred-X General Manager, Van Karas. “Helping to create a closed-loop recycling process at Sunday’s event further cements the value and credibility of the RecycleMeTM System, backed by Shred-X.”
For more information contact Amy Park on amy.park@detmoldgroup.com or 0426 419 189.
About Detpak
A Member of the Detmold Group, Detpak is a specialist paper and board packaging manufacturer dedicated to the food service industry. The Detmold Group has been owned and operated by the Detmold family since 1948. Detpak combines global reach with local expertise and offers a large range of ready-to-go packaging items as well as custom-print, tailored and sustainable packaging solutions.
About Shred-X
For 20 years Shred-X Secure Destruction has been the number one choice for confidential secure destruction, document shredding, office paper recycling and destroying sensitive data. We offer secure destruction solutions for private households through to large global corporations and the highest security government departments. We offer you tailored services including RecycleMeTM cup collection.
* US EPA https://archive.epa.gov/wastes/conserve/materials/paper/web/html/papermaking.html