A street full of disposable paper cups, plastic water bottles... After a lively marathon event, the trash scattered along the track has become a problem for the event organizers. In today's hot marathon, the problem of garbage in the race has also caused a lot of debate.

At the recently concluded 39th London Marathon, a brand new solution appeared -- the race introduced a biodegradable "capsule" drink as a supplement for the first time, which greatly reduced the use of plastic bottles as a result. It may not be long before this kind of "black technology" also appears in many marathons in China.

How much trash is there on the marathon track?

The 2018 London Marathon used nearly 920,000 plastic bottles, according to the BBC. Cleaning crews also collected nearly 50,000 plastic bottles left on the city's streets after the race.

In the Chinese marathon, using disposable paper cups as an example, if each runner uses four disposable paper cups on average, at least 120,000 disposable paper cups will be produced in a race of 30,000 people.

However, this year's London Marathon has become a hot topic around the world because of an environmentally friendly supplement called "capsule" that can replace plastic water bottles.

Organizers gave out more than 30,000 edible "capsules" to runners taking part in the London Marathon this year. These are small transparent bags that contain a sports drink. Made from a fast-growing seaweed, the film is tasteless and edible, and even if it is thrown away, it breaks down naturally within four to six weeks with no impact on the environment.

The supply capsules were handed out by gloved volunteers at stations 23 miles along the course, while the number of drink stations along the route was cut from 26 to 19 this year, resulting in more than 215,000 fewer plastic bottles being used during the race than last year, according to The New York Times.

"The biodegradable capsules were first used during the London Half Marathon last September, and this year's London Marathon is officially running." Chen Guoqiang, an associate professor at Shanghai University of Sport who has been following Chinese marathons for a long time, said, "In fact, Chinese marathons have also paid attention to environmental protection. "At the Xiamen Marathon in January, the 35,000-person race replaced nearly 1 million disposable plastic cups with biodegradable ones made of corn stalks."

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