London Marathon runners were given a surprising thirst quencher during their run: edible seaweed pouches filled with a sports drink.
London Marathon runners were given a surprising thirst quencher during their run: edible seaweed pouches filled with a sports drink.
The seaweed pouch campaign during the marathon, which took place yesterday on April 28,2019, helped to reduce the use of hundreds of thousands of plastic bottles. Marathon organizers have grappled with the sea of plastic bottles left over after over 40,000 runners quenched their thirst with single-use bottles of water and sports drink.
However, in the 2019 London Marathon organizers planned to replace 200,000 plastic bottles with innovative seaweed pouches filled with a sports drink. The seaweed pouches, called Ooho, were produced by Skipping Rocks Lab. The seaweed capsules can be bitten to release the liquid inside and eventually entirely consumed, or if the runner prefers not to eat the seaweed film it can be discarded where it will break down quickly.
In 2018 the London Marathon used over 919,000 plastic bottles. In 2019 the plan was to use a little over 700,000 plastic bottles and 200,000 edible seaweed pods. Marathon organizers say the 700,000 plastic bottles will exist in a closed-loop system where they are handed to runners and afterward collected and processed to create more plastic bottles.
The company harvests brown seaweed and removes the color, odor, and taste to produce a thin, edible membrane that can replace plastic packaging. The brown seaweed Skipping Rock Lab uses grows up to 1 meter per day and requires no fresh water or fertilizer.
