City2Surf Sydney
City2Surf Sydney is the world’s largest fun run, attracting participants from all walks of life to race the iconic 14km route from Hyde Park in Sydney’s CBD to the renowned Bondi Beach. The mass participation event has been raising funds for charities for the past 50 years!
Closed Loop is proud to be the sustainable event waste management team behind City2Surf Sydney. We’re committed to enhancing its sustainability efforts each year by implementing thoughtful strategies that build on past learnings.
Mass participation events
The challenge
Managing waste sustainably for large-scale events is inherently complex.
At City2Surf, there are multiple waste streams with waste being collected across the starting line, along the 14km course, the ending line and at the event village.
Other challenges included:
- the involvement of multiple councils and contractors
- coordinating waste management efforts
- initiating, consolidating and standardising waste and resource reporting
- understanding waste creation across various sites
- maximising resource value for waste streams such as paper cups, which were previously being sent to landfill
Overseeing the event
The solution
Closed Loop’s involvement with waste and sustainability at City2Surf has evolved from providing cleaning services to a singular site in 2022, to consolidating and streamlining waste logistics across the entire event in 2024.
Our approach consists of understanding the event profile, conducting a waste audit to determine scope, consolidating waste logistics, negotiating the management of waste generation amongst councils and waste providers and formulating holistic, practical guidance.
This approach eliminates unnecessary, yet common complexities seen in large-scale events.
“The City2Surf team had another great year working with Closed Loop who have been able to continue to simplify our waste processes and reduce our waste that goes to landfill. Their involvement and dedication from planning to activations on an event of this scale has been exceptional and the team looks forward to working with them again in the future.”
- Renay Vreeken
Operations Manager
Our expertise
Our experience in managing mass-participant sporting events sustainably informed our strategies and initiatives to maximise waste saved from landfill.
- Waste management oversight: We liaise with local councils, contractors, and other relevant parties to ensure appropriate disposal of each waste stream after the event.
- Comprehensive waste analysis: Our waste analysis informs specific baselines and reporting frameworks to guide local councils, contractors, and other relevant parties.
- Introduction of waste stream solutions: We utilise our network of recycling solutions and partners to provide local waste to resource streams.
- Implementation of standardised guidelines: We develop and enforce guidelines across waste, operations and inputs. These guidelines consider council requirements and regulations.
- Course and village management: We manage the whole event landscape including hydration and aid stations.
- Vendor communication and negotiation: We consolidate communications with local councils, contractors and other relevant parties, such as street sweepers and vendors.
- Strategic bin placement: We set up dedicated bins at hydration stations to collect only the purest forms of cups—those that had contained water—minimising contamination risks.
- Maximised visibility: Bins and signage were strategically placed along the course and at start/finish lines to encourage responsible waste disposal.
- Efficient bin management: We promptly replace bins when full to keep up with the volume of participants and maintain a clean environment throughout the event.
- Attendee education and engagement: We speak to attendees about where their waste goes and how to effectively dispose of their waste, using signage as a guideline.
- Localised staff: We employ staff local to the area.
Addressing paper cups
The largest waste stream
Events often provide services such as hydration stations for athletes, resulting in significant and required use of paper cups.
Paper cups disposal options are limited and vary from state to state. As an example, even certified compostable paper cups cannot be processed at commercial composting facilities in many states.
Closed Loop have partnered with Simply Cups, to recycle these paper cups. This recycling solution work with local partners to turn these paper cups into asphalt for roads, lightweight concrete products and sustainable building materials.
Setting the benchmark for large-scale sporting events
As the world’s largest fun run, City2Surf Sydney is proof that mass-participating sporting events can be run sustainably.
We look forward to continuing our collaboration with the City2Surf team, reinforcing our commitment to hosting sustainable events and drawing on insights from past years to improve on our robust systems to continue accommodating both participants and spectators sustainably.
Our work:
City2Surf Sydney
Floriade
Melbourne International Flower & Garden Show
Sydney Motorsport Park
Bay Dreams NZ
