Fifteen event shirts

Fifteen event Tee`s

I originally wrote about event Tee’s in 2019 things have changed a lot since then and so have I, I have been taking part in organised events for over thirty years, to begin with in my twenty’s I only done a few 10km fun runs and organised charity cycles with my wife I was married all of my twenties, when the divorce happened I found the social element of sporting activities was where I belonged rugby skiing cycling and running, I didn’t do rugby long I was rubbish at it but made loads of good friends at the time, cycling is much more a solo thing I’ve only got two cycling event T shirts, and haven’t took part in an organised event in about 15 years I seem to remember twenty years ago it was standard to get a tee free? With your entry fee, when you completed organised events certainly for half and full marathons, tough mudders spartans half or full marathons 10km runs; some of these T shirts I got were cotton but most times they were polyester, I sometimes wore them once or not at all but kept my event completers polyester T shirts aside, I always wore the cotton ones though rarely now, in 2019 I gave these a count, I had fifteen of theses perhaps worn once t`s This was totally unnecessary it had to stop! My friend peter in the running club has a lot more than me, I’ve not asked how many but I know that he has done every Edinburgh marathon since it stated twenty years ago and is proud he has all the tea shirts, he is not concerned about his carbon footprint he is looking at the Tokyo marathon next year as he has done the others in what’s known as the big six the major marathons around the world, he wants to be one of the Tens of thousands of runners that are on their way to what some consider marathon running’s greatest prize: the Six Star Medal. He has no intention of not taking his T shirts, that’s fine I am not out to judge friends, but I do what I can to change the system this is waste for waste’s sake a solution must be found The cotton T shirts that I had amassed I did used to wear, not so much now I intend to never buy another again, I have got more than enough T`s to last me my lifetime (a third world problem I know) what I have done with my surplus of cotton T shirts is -put them in a vacuum pack bags in my loft, with countless other items of clothing that I have gathered over the years some never worn or perhaps worn once or twice, after reading the book let my people surf a few years back I started an ethos of refuse repair and reuse nothing to landfill, this means I’ve been sort of stuck with all these extra clothes, sometimes recycling is only handing somebody else your waste to deal with! Polyester event T shirts are the prime example of this! - what good are event T shirts to charity shops? - none Damian halls book we cant run away from this explains all of this in a much more in-depth way, this is what I wrote in 2019 - the polyester T shirts are worse than cotton because Nowadays, polyester dominates the clothing industry, with annual production exceeding; 22.67 billion tonnes;worldwide. Pushing aside all the chemical jargon, polyester is just a common plastic with a wide application that includes and extends way beyond free event T shirts!Polyester ranks behind polyethylene (i.e., packaging and water bottles) and polypropylene (i.e., ropes, stationary bank notes etc) as the most commonly used plastic. The majority of polyesters are not biodegradable meaning that the polyester fabric shirt I would previously have taken thinking it was free, is literally costing the earth, it will not decompose for 20 years at best and 200 years at worst, depending on conditions. What’s more, polyester is, in part, derived from petroleum and the oil manufacturing industry is arguably the world’s largest pollutant. some researchers would suggest cows /dairy farming to be worse than the oil industry but regardless which is worse the planet is struggling to cope with our species greed at present rates of production Ever noticed how polyester fabrics are stain resistant? That’s because it takes a special kind of dye to successfully colour polyester. These dyes, known as disperse dyes, are insoluble in water and, like polyester, are made up of a complex molecular structure that does not readily decompose. Waste water from textile factories containing leftover dye is difficult to treat and, as such, enters the environment where its toxicity causes serious problems to plant and animal life. In addition to causing environmental problems, polyester dyes are also toxic to humans, all the new stuff we get emits VOC`s and I think i have rambled on enough here without getting into VOC`s,

Remembering I wrote this back in 2019 there’s so much more information out there on this nowadays, go research and scare yerself! Theres some companies getting sued for what’s called forever chemicals poisoning whole districts with these toxins, I have a friend that works high up for a well-known clothing manufacturer, trust me; we are going to hear an awful lot more about this, because there are environmental scientist gathering more information on the damage done and continuing to be done, what if you knew a company was manufacturing poisons, less than three miles from your doorstep? There is from mine all legally licenced to manufacture bee killing biocides and absolutely nobody seems to care, its jobs Is the answer I get From a personal point of view, I once loved my event T shirts, I didn’t recognise myself as a mass consumerist but I was to my shame I now realise, i now have too many. The only thing in my defence I can say was - that it was done in ignorance I have now learned that nothing is free and if something is cheap somebody or the planet is paying the real cost, SO; event T shirts will have to be stopped by organisers at some point this cannot go on indefinitely Don’t get me wrong again I’m not judging anyone else just the system, I do find it hard to not accept an event T shirt, I am like mutley when he was in the cartoon catch the pigeon, I love a medal or trophy, BUT; these days it plays on my Ecological brain even the cotton ones sadden my eyes nowadays, cotton event T shirts are generally made from non-organic non-sustainably sourced cotton – and; probably mass produced in some sweat shop in the east, that treats their workforce as modern day slaves,

Let’s get up to date now! I am writing this in July 2023, I pledged to myself to do one organised running event every month of this year, this I have done that’s six events done so far - two ultras two marathons two trail 10k`s, I’m not sure if I can count in all the legs of the climate relay? Its an organised event with stage two alone! was half marathon distance over the mountains, (which I completed with my sair paw) I am now part of the fantastic green runners community and as such pledge to try and do trees not tees where given the option, I’ve been doing that for ages now having even ran at an event held on the founders estate on the isle of mull, as part of that event we planted trees also, the how we kit up pledge also asks us - to repair if we can and try not to buy any new, we are also encouraged to speak out, ask event organisers what they are doing about their sustainability and carbon footprint, I have done all of these things this year, I have two dirty little secrets I need to fess up to! I accepted a free buff at the great Lakeland three day event, I had forgotten to pack mine and require a hanky as - I’ve got a nasty snotter box for a beak, also for the cape wrath ultra, I was given the option of paying for a tee along with paying for a tree and I couldn’t resist - I paid for both, it was in fairness to me the biggest running event of my life, and; I had made that decision way back in 2019, long before I joined the green runners, the Manchester marathon I wrote to the organisers and done a blog post about how I felt about the sustainability and environmental message of that event The fifteen polyester event T shirts I mentioned at the start, were not them all I had others on Shetland that are now burned down in a hotel fire, I also do have a selection I wear consistently when out running about or adventuring, that bag of fifteen unused event T`s I gave to my niece who does a bit of craft work, I asked her to sew them all on a light old duvet I had and could then upcycle it, as a sort of keepsake usable throw, that was four years ago, I’ve not heard from her since then, SO; I guess she’s forgotten None of are perfect but its great if we all try, the green runners are good like that, we don’t judge each other it’s a caring sharing running community - trying to make a difference towards the changes we need to see in the future,