Wellington’s Round the Bays event eliminates plastic bottles

Wellington’s community run/walk event - the Brendan Foot Supersite Round the Bays event, being held today (16th February), will substitute plastic bottles of water with the more sustainable option of Globelet reusable cups. 

Round the Bays is a community event organised by Sport Wellington which sees people walk and run their way around the waterfront bays of Wellington - choosing to partipate in either a 6.5km fun run/walk, buggy walk, or the 10km and half marathon.

Funding from Wellington City Council, Sport Wellington will substitute bottles with Globelet reusable cups, eliminating 14,000 plastic bottles from Wellington’s waste stream – and they can continue to be used again and again.

Sport Wellington began building towards being the first large-scale event in the world to be zero waste by 2025 when they replaced 30,000 cups with Globelet reusable options in 2019.

Globelet works with over 300 events per year across Australasia, washing more than 2 million products annually. Their reusable revolution has so far eliminated 21.6 million items from the world’s waste stream.

Although event organisers are not required by the council to ensure or encourage waste minimisation at events, partnering with Globelet reflects Sport Wellington’s commitment to keeping New Zealand clean and green.

These waste minimisation efforts have been made possible by Council’s Waste Minimisation Seed Funds grant, which supports development of innovative solutions for reducing waste.

Phil Gibbons, Chief Executive Sport Wellington notes "Sport Wellington is very grateful for the seed funding it has received from the Wellington City Council Waste Minimisation Fund.

“Taking 14,000 bottles out of the waste stream is a fantastic outcome as a result of this grant funding."

Waste Minimisation portfolio lead, Councillor Laurie Foon highlighted that Globelet is a Kiwi company which has created a zero waste system to produce reusable cups and bottles – making the environmentally friendlier choice an easier one for event organisers.

Councillor Foon added “Sport Wellington is demonstrating to thousands of Wellingtonians that there are solutions to reduce waste and stop the use of single-use items, which will also influence other event organisers, participants and spectators alike.

“Eliminating waste out of the system is the way of the future so we commend this effort and are right behind other organisations who are leading the way in solutions like this."

The Waste Minimisation Seed Funds grants $100,000 a year to projects, and Sport Wellington’s Round the Bays received $17,993. The under-$2000 Seed Funds grants are currently open until 31st May.

Participants are encouraged to return their Globelet cup on the day by putting them into the 'cup capture bins' so that they can be washed and reused again next year.