Recently, plastic’s adverse effects on the oceans, the environment and human health have been brought to the forefront of public discussion with the help of the Earth Day Network and the United Nations’ World Environment Day.

The large amount of plastic pollution at major sporting events has prompted some major players in the sports industry to take significant steps in combating the global issue.

1. Eliminating single-use plastics

A number of sporting venues worldwide have committed to cutting out single-use plastic items, including straws, disposable packaging and cutlery.

Levy, a company that handles food and beverages at nearly 200 sports and entertainment venues in the United States, have banned single-use plastic straws at venues including the Milwaukee Bucks’ new arena and the Chicago White Sox’s Guaranteed Rate Field.

“At Guaranteed Rate Field, we worked hand-in-hand with the White Sox and Shedd Aquarium to support the Shedd the Straw initiative for Earth Day 2018, and the event was so successful that we’re partnering with the team to continue this effort through the season,” Levy’s president and CEO, Andy Lansing, told AccuWeather.

“Americans use over 500 million plastic straws each day, and reducing this number is both a simple and a truly impactful way of protecting the planet,” Lansing said.

In England, the Tottenham Hotspur Football Club made a similar commitment to eliminating single-use plastics in its new stadium, which will also serve as a dedicated home to NFL games in the United Kingdom.

“[We will] not be stocking plastic straws, stirrers or cutlery from day one at our new stadium across all concourse areas, nor will they be wrapped in any plastic disposable packaging,” the Club stated in a press release. “In addition, no single-use plastics will be used to serve food inside our premium areas.”

The International Olympic Committee has also pledged to do away with single-use plastics from its events.

2. Reducing plastic bottles

During the hottest London Marathon on record, 2018’s organizers used compostable cups in an effort to cut down on the number of plastic bottles used at the 26.2-mile event, which draws in tens of thousands of runners.

“We trialed the use of compostable cups at two water stations and one sports drink station,” said Hugh Brasher, event director of London Marathon Events.

About 90,000 compostable cups were used alongside 760,000 plastic bottles that were also available to runners.

“London Marathon Events is determined to be at the forefront of event sustainability and is committed to the concept of ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle,’” Brasher said.

There are a number of logistical and recycling challenges that accompany the use of compostable cups, Brasher added, and event organizers are in the process of reviewing their use for future marathons.

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3. Plastic pollution research

On June 5, 2018, French activist and swimmer Ben Lecomte set off on a historic swim across the Pacific Ocean in an effort to gain awareness on the state of ocean health from pollution.

He and his crew embarked on a six-month journey from Tokyo to San Francisco to collect samples to be used in research on various subjects, including radiation from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster and plastics found in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which is Earth's largest cluster of ocean trash.

These samples are useful to researchers who plan to study them and gain a better understanding on how humans impact the health of the ocean.

“[This research] is providing scientists with a valuable sample set from an under-sampled area of the open ocean that we could not easily acquire, and it provides public visibility in a very engaging way – not only on the issue of plastic litter in the ocean, but also on the scientific community that is trying to understand and help mitigate the problem,” said Dr. Erik Zettler, guest researcher for the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research.

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