We all know that sporting events generate a significant amount of waste. But it is true that more and more organizations are aware of the importance of recycling and of turning this waste into resources by placing containers for the selective collection of different types of packaging.

In the various sports events, good prior planning must be done by the organization, carrying out a control, monitoring and evaluation of the impact that our event has, in order to try to make it as sustainable as possible.

In 2011, the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces published the ‘Guide to good environmental practices for sporting events’. In the Waste Management section, it was commented that society should move towards a recycling society and that it was mandatory to incorporate quantifiable objectives and mechanisms and indicators for their control.

The famous maxim of “reduce + reuse + recycle“, is increasingly present at these events. The UTGS takes into account when planning what to buy, which products are a priority and which are 100% recyclable to be, thus, a sustainable race thanks in large part to the close collaboration with Novapet; This collaboration that was born in the last 11th edition of the test in 2019, wants to show and demonstrate the sustainability of PET, a flexible, but resistant material that allows it to be reused, and what is more important, recycled infinite times.

PET has the great advantage that it is a sustainable material in origin and 100% recyclable with a considerable saving of resources in the process, therefore, we can say that PET is the only container that allows food recycling bottle by bottle, this en: from a single bottle, we can use 100% of it to incorporate it into the production of a new bottle that will contain a certain percentage of recycled PET.

The union of the Ultra Trail Guara Somontano and Novapet was forged by being companies in the Somontano territory committed to the environment and sustainability: “From the first moment it was clear to us, a sporting event that would bring together in our territory, the Somontano, those values ​​and to highlight the usefulness that PET brings to sports life, and, at the same time, the value of the material it has once used. And it is that, what many still see as a waste, is for us, the most valuable resource.

And this relationship reaches its practice and tangible facts with the placement, once again, of exclusive containers for the selective collection of PET at aid stations and important points in the town of Alquézar and its surroundings. And it is that the selective collection of PET is key so that the production of bottles according to European regulations contains every year a higher percentage of recycled PET (r-PET, as it is called in terms of the sector).

The Ultra Trail Guara Somontano is on the countdown, its 2021 edition will take place on September 25 and 26, and this time it will incorporate important novelties in its commitment to being a sustainable event, to the selective collection of PET packaging is added that will already contain a% r-PET from the PET collected in the 2019 test (the containers of water and isotonic drinks, the bowls of the aid stations that include food, the cutlery …).

Another novelty is the design of the marking bands that will be made in PET that will incorporate reflective for better viewing in moments of poor visibility or at night; PET bands that, thanks to the excellent work of AIMPLAS, Línea de Diseño, INTEGRAL UNUSUAL DESING and Somontano Social, will be used for this edition and for many more editions.