Press Release - London Marathon - 3/20/24

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

          London Marathon Events partnering with JogOn to collect 
              unwanted running shoes and trainers from events

London Marathon Events (LME) announced today, Thursday 21 March, that it 
will be supporting the running shoe collection campaign JogOn to collect 
unwanted trainers at its running events. 

Estimates suggest more than three million shoes end up in landfill each 
year and JogOn's ambition is to remove more than one million pairs of 
trainers from landfill. The partnership will facilitate the collection of 
hundreds of trainers and running shoes from participants at events 
including the 2024 Brighton Marathon Weekend and the 2024 TCS London 
Marathon, both set to take place this April. 

JogOn drop-off points will be available at the Brighton Marathon Weekend on 
Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 April in Preston Park, and at the 2024 TCS London 
Marathon Running Show, where all London Marathon participants collect their 
running bibs between Wednesday 17 and Saturday 20 April.  

All trainers and running shoes donated by participants will be sorted by 
the JogOn team to ensure they are suitable for redistribution before being 
sent on to a new home for reuse in the UK and overseas. JogOn works with 
companies, charities and organisations that can make use of second-hand 
shoes, with 90 per cent of donated shoes suitable for redistribution. Any 
running shoes that are not suitable for re-use are disposed of by the JogOn 
team via a waste-to-energy plant where electricity is generated from 
incinerating waste.  

The partnership is one of LME's new sustainability initiatives for 2024 
aimed at reducing the environmental impact of its events, with a particular 
focus on cutting waste and enabling kit to stay in service for longer.  

Kate Chapman, Head of Sustainability at LME, said: "We're working to 
introduce more initiatives every year to reduce the environmental impact of 
our events. Every participant in our running events will have at least one 
pair of running trainers and it's likely they will also have other trainers 
they no longer use. The majority of these trainers end up in landfill, or 
being incinerated, but our partnership with JogOn means we can now 
encourage all our participants to check their cupboards for unwanted 
running shoes and bring them to the drop-off locations at the Brighton 
Marathon and the TCS London Marathon. JogOn can then give new life to 
pre-loved trainers and donate them to people who need them."  

Tony Piedade, founder of JogOn, said: "I am super excited to be partnering 
with London Marathon Events. It's a real boost to the JogOn campaign to 
keep unwanted running shoes out of landfill. I am grateful for the 
leadership and energy that the London Marathon Events team has bought to 
the campaign and look forward to working with them for years to come."  

JogOn will be collecting discarded trainers and running shoes at the 
following events this year: 

- Brighton Marathon Weekend on Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 April 
- TCS London Marathon Running Show on Wednesday 17 to Saturday 20 April 
- Standard Chartered Great City Race on Tuesday 23 July  
- The Big Half on Sunday 1 September 
- Vitality Westminster Mile on Saturday 21 September 
- Vitality London 10,000 on Sunday 22 September
- The Royal Parks Half on Sunday 13 October 

One of LME's long-term objectives is to help drive positive change in 
environmental sustainability through its own actions and inspire its 
stakeholders and partners to do the same. More information on environmental 
sustainability at LME's events can be found here. 

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