Zero tolerance against littering
Vasaloppet continues its hard and purposeful work in the environmental area. A zero tolerance policy is in effect against littering.
"The aim is that there should be no littering at all along the whole Vasaloppet Arena," says Vasaloppet's Environment Manager Mats Rylander.
Vasaloppet is putting a lot of effort into sorting and recycling rubbish and has had very good development in this area in recent years. The focus is now also on not letting any rubbish end up along the ninety kilometre long arena.
”We continue to inform our participants and visitors that the Vasaloppet Arena is a nature reserve and that Allemansrätten applies as to how one should act,” says Mats Rylander, continuing:
”We create conditions that let people dispose of rubbish in the right places, making sure to have lots of bins placed in suitable locations. Both for visitors and participants.”
Sorting is important
The bins are marked to make recycling possible. Plastics have their place, so does cardboard, and so does burnable waste.
”It is impossible to completely avoid producing waste, so instead we must strive for as little burnable waste as possible. We are always working towards recycling,” Rylander points out.
This process also demands new thinking when it comes to sharing information with participants.
”The zero tolerance policy means that in the future we won’t be distributing as much material; more should be digital, with as few physical documents as possible. Only when necessary. But that also means that we must excel at providing information through other channels,” Mats says.
”The aim is that there should be no littering at all along the whole Vasaloppet Arena.”
The Vasaloppet bun is now locally produced
Another environmental initiative is, for example, that Vasaloppet has switched to a local supplier for the well-known Vasaloppet bun, which cuts back further on transports.
”It feels great to now have Rättviksbagaren as a supplier of the Vasaloppet bun. There are a whole lot of buns being baked for an event with 65,000 guests,” says Rylander.
Other efforts in the environmental area include the use of Preem’s Tall oil for our bus transports, and train and bus trips to Tjejvasan and Vasaloppet once again being organized from several parts of the country. The use of trains is something that will probably develop even further in the coming years. Vasaloppet is an eco-labelled event in collaboration with Håll Sverige Rent.
