London Marathon mile markers made from ocean plastic recovered by our volunteers

Runners at this weekend’s London Marathon were able to keep track of their progress using plastic mile markers made from recycled ocean plastics as part of an innovative Keep Britain Tidy scheme.

The environmental charity’s Ocean Recovery Project  was commissioned to provide granulated mixed beach plastic by 3D printing company Scal3d. Scal3d was awarded the mile marker project by the London Marathon.

Keep Britain Tidy supplied a staggering four tonnes of mixed beach plastic that had been collected by our volunteers over a two year period in 2020 and 2021.

The beach plastic was used alongside shredded recycled material from the marathon that was cancelled during the pandemic in order to make 52 mile markers!

Through partnership work the charity introduced representatives from Scal3d to a firm called Stormboard, which previously created boards for staging at the Glastonbury festival from plastic that volunteers recovered.

This time Stormboard made the plank sections of the mile markers from beach plastic the environmental charity collected, granulated and shipped to them, while Scal3d, through 3d printing, made the connecting pieces.

The revolutionary mile marker towers were unveiled at a trade show for runners and athletes in London on Wednesday which attended by representatives from Keep Britain Tidy, the London Marathon, Scal3d, and Stormboard.

These towers were then placed at each side of the road to mark each mile of the marathon, which took place on Sunday 2 October.

During the event many of the charity’s #LitterHeroes volunteer litter-pickers helped to keep the marathon route clean and tidy.

Keep Britain Tidy would like to congratulate everybody who took part!