Thank you for signing this petition for Green Mumbai Marathon. The petition is gathering steam approaching nearly 1500 signatures in 5 days since the start. There are many conversations around this topic. We will keep them going by looking in detail on various points highlighted in the petition. *Why should we look at reduction of plastic waste.* Plastic bottles can be recycled so we can use as many plastic bottles, right? Wrong. Lets look at some facts about plastic bottle recycling: 1. Plastic water bottles are made of virgin plastic. They are *not* made from recycled plastic. 2. The value of plastic waste is falling in India due to rising imports. This scenario represents higher volume and falling profits for the recycling sector. 3. Plastic recycling costs money, energy and labour. Why do first world countries ship their plastic waste to countries like China and India? Why has China stopped accepting plastic waste in imports? “China’s ban covers imports of 24 kinds of solid waste, including unsorted paper and the low-grade polyethylene terephthalate used in plastic bottles, as part of a broad cleanup effort and a campaign against “yang laji,” or “foreign garbage.” - https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/11/world/china-recyclables-ban.html 4. There are regulations on how much of recycled plastic can be added in F&B packaging. The leaching of chemicals from plastic container into the packed food/beverage is a major concern. 5. PET can be down-cycled 6-7 times to various other objects such as cables and pipes till it cannot be recycled again. This plastic will stay in our environment for 500-1000 years in landfill or end up in the ocean or guts of animals. Plastic recycling is *not* a circular economy. 6. Bottle caps have a separate recycling process than the bottle themselves, which is as intensive as that of the bottle itself. 7. The thin plastic label of plastic bottles is not recycled. It is sent for incineration to cement kilns. Remember the 3 R’s - Reduce, reuse and recycle? ‘Reduce’ comes first and for good reason. There is enough plastic waste on earth and countries are struggling to handle this waste and banning single use plastic items. Reducing volume of plastic waste is the more sustainable step in the long term. “Recycling makes us feel good, but few of us know what actually happens to a plastic bottle after we drop it into a bin. What happens is the bottle enters an elaborate global system within which its plastic is sold, shipped, melted, resold, and shipped again—sometimes zigzagging the globe before becoming a carpet, clothing, or repeating life as a bottle. This process is possible because plastic is a stubborn substance, which resists decomposition. With a presumed life span of over 500 years, it’s safe to say that every plastic bottle you have used exists somewhere on this planet, in some form or another.” - https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/12/what-actually-happens-to-a-recycled-plastic-bottle/418326/ Re-iterating the petition demands to Mumbai Marathon Organizers. 1. Reduce plastic bottle waste on the route and introduce water re-fill at aid stations. 2. No plastic bottles to given in holding area/finish 3. Replace premixed juice/electrolyte with powder equivalent. 4. Hot food to be served at the finish on steel plates. 5. Post event waste audit to be made public.