Organisers of Therme Manchester Marathon are constantly striving to improve the sustainability of the event to reduce its impact on the environment; with this in mind they have launched a 'Green Runner' team for 2022.

Those entering the spring event (3 April) have the option to enter as a Green Runner, a new eco-friendly option where entrants forego a finisher t-shirt and/or medal in favour of donating to support The Ocean Cleanup.

Founded in 2013, The Ocean Cleanup now has technologies to intercept plastic in rivers before it reaches the ocean (plastic flowing in rivers accounts for 80% of plastic in the ocean), and technologies to remove the plastic that is already out there. Their creation of ‘interceptor’ machines, are 100% solar-powered and can extract plastic autonomously. The harvested plastic is then brought back to shore for recycling.

At Therme Manchester Marathon, funds from the Green Runner initiative will go towards helping The Ocean Cleanup reach their goal of a 90% reduction of floating ocean plastic by 2040. By choosing to be a Green Runner you can make an impact on the state of the oceans and rivers worldwide.

A spokesperson from Manchester Marathon told us: "We have received feedback from many of our previous runners that whilst they love the sentimentality of a finisher t-shirt, the truth simply is that many don’t wear them once they get home and they get thrown away after a few months.

"Often we find at the end of our events that many runners refuse to take their t-shirt because they know they won’t wear them – therefore we want to spare the wastage where we possibly can."

In the average UK household nearly a third of clothes haven’t been worn in the last year. That's what ReRun, a community interest company founded with the purpose of prolonging the life of running clothes and equipment has shown. It has also been suggested that '60% of runners have more than 10 race t-shirts, and these amount to 60 – 65% of all unwanted clothes received by Re-run'.

Manchester Marathon spokesperson continues: "Whilst we know this doesn’t apply to all of you, and we do love receiving the pictures of you out on your training runs in your Manchester Marathon tees, we want to show our commitment by offering those who do not want the t-shirt a different option.

"Our approach has always been to reduce, re-use and recycle wherever possible, we realise that there are many different aspects to be worked on and improved over time which we will endeavour to do."

You can find out more about the Therme Manchester Marathon CARE Policy here.

If you'd like to become a Green Runner then more information is available here. 

Image: Human Race