With the 2024 Olympics behind us, it’s a good time to dive into the event’s sustainability efforts. Since the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has been working on greening the Games—with varying degrees of success.
The Olympic and Paralympic Games are the world’s largest sporting events, bringing together thousands of athletes and millions of people from around the world to unite and celebrate nearly superhuman feats of the human body and mind across a range of competitions. This year’s Olympic and Paralympic Games were designed to be the most environmentally friendly of recent times. To achieve new sustainability heights, the IOC and host nation France launched a plan for environmental and social change to eliminate single-use plastics, promote sustainable sporting structures, use sports to raise awareness of climate change, and more at this year’s Games.
But are these efforts to “green” the Games—especially the IOC’s strategies to eliminate single-use plastic—going far enough?
Olympic Sustainability Promises Get a Reality Check
Olympic organizers have been strategizing for years to make each successive Olympic Games the most environmentally and socially responsible in history. For the 2024 Paris Olympic and upcoming Paralympic Games (which will be held in Paris from August 28–September 8, 2024), Olympic organizers have outlined numerous improvements for these and successive Games in “The Legacy and Sustainability Plan.”
At huge events like the Olympics, plastics and other waste can quickly pile up. According to the IOC’s London 2012 Post-Games Sustainability Report, more than 10,000 metric tons of waste was generated. Yet, while the London Games claims to have diverted 100% of waste from landfills, it actually sent the majority of plastic and other trash to “waste to energy” incinerators—which cause pollution and do not stop plastic pollution at the source. The London Games also heavily relied on recycling, another false solution. For example, in 2014 Coca-Cola claimed it had collected 10.5 million plastic bottles from the London 2012 Games, which the company incorporated into 42 million new bottles made with 25% recycled plastic —creating even more plastic pollution. Taking a closer look, we can see that many Olympic sustainability initiatives have amounted to little more than greenwashing—initiatives that may appear eco-friendly at a glance, but really only perpetuate environmental and social problems.
Greenwashing at the Games
Unfortunately, greenwashing trends appear to have persisted in place of true efforts to reduce plastic pollution and wastefulness during the 2024 Olympic Games. Ahead of the Paris 2024 Games, the IOC and Paris officials had promisingly announced they would reduce the amount of single-use plastic in Paris by half of that used in London 2012. Strategies for doing so included offering reusable cups with a 2-Euro deposit that attendees and athletes could use at water and soda fountains, and prohibiting single-use plastic bottles in some of the temporary competition sites, such as the Concorde, Grand Palais, and Eiffel Tower. Attendees were also allowed to bring in reusable water bottles to some of the events—not the typical regulations for French sporting venues.
However, Olympic sponsor Coca-Cola reportedly had trouble installing hundreds of water and soda fountains, and so many venues simply emptied beverages from plastic bottles into reusable cups—defeating the purpose of reuse. And while the IOC opted for some reusable foodware, unfortunately they chose a type that is made of plastic—and all plastic sheds microplastics and chemicals. Another greenwashed initiative used during the 2024 Games was to create 11,000 seats and 68 podiums from used plastic. Plastic creates microplastic pollution and releases chemical and greenhouse gas emissions during “recycling,” and eventually will be discarded again to become plastic pollution.
Writer James O’Brien, who attended the Paris Games and past Summer Olympics, told Plastic Pollution Coalition Intern Gabrielle Gomez that he did not see much of noticeable change over time in sustainability initiatives as a spectator.
Sustainability wasn’t something that was obviously promoted. [I saw] nothing much beyond recycling bins, but they are everywhere.
— James O’Brien, Director of Communications at the New York Athletic Club
What Would a Truly Sustainable Olympics Look Like?
Participating in and attending modern athletic competitions are experiences that have become awash with plastics. During sporting events, it can seem like plastic is everywhere, from single-use plastic water bottles, foodware, and beverageware; to synthetic shoes and uniforms; and even plastic sporting equipment and structures, such as flags, goal posts and nets, helmets, shin guards, synthetic turf fields, and other additional items. But, it doesn’t have to be this way.
Numerous athletes and countries across various types of sports have called for big beverage companies to increase their reusable packaging prior to the games. A letter signed by more than 100 sports organizations and elite athletes from around the world, including Olympians and world champions, called on major beverage companies Coca-Cola and Pepsi, and bottler Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP) to adopt reuse as a global standard for their products instead of focusing on recycling. The letter cites research by Oceana finding that just a 10% increase in reusable beverage packaging globally by 2030 would eliminate more than 1 trillion single-use plastic bottles and cups from being produced. The Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo were named among the top global plastic polluters for the past six years, according to annual brand audit data collected by the Break Free From Plastic movement.
While it’s commendable that the IOC has clearly advocated for improved sustainability efforts for each successive Olympic Games, it’s important that the efforts it pushes forth are actually effective in reducing plastic pollution and other problems that harm people and the planet. Plastic-free reusable and refillable food and beverage containers, and water and beverage refill stations can dramatically reduce plastic pollution at these major sporting events. Plastic must be eliminated at the source; recycling plastic will never be enough to solve the problem, and so should not be the focus of the IOC’s sustainability efforts. Nor should plastic be replaced with “regrettable substitutions” like industrially produced bioplastics—which contain many of the same harmful chemicals as plastics, break up into microplastics, and continue to drive wasteful single-use consumption.
Of course, the Olympics has a long way to go to eliminate plastics, even if the IOC stops using the material in its food and beverage services during the Games. There are also plastics in the equipment, uniforms, and venues, which needs to be addressed. For example, microplastics and chemicals are expelled from synthetic fabrics into the air, soil, water, and athletes’ and spectators’ bodies. Designing uniforms and equipment from natural materials is a far healthier and environmentally friendly choice.
Take Action
While the Paris 2024 Olympic Games have made a few positive strides forward in addressing plastic pollution and other environmental and social issues, the Games still have a long way to go. We can take action by encouraging efforts that will help end plastic pollution on a global scale.
First, urge Olympic sponsor and major plastic polluter Coca-Cola to bring back glass refillable bottles and eliminate its plastic bottles.
Next, help by signing petitions to the U.S. Government and world leaders calling for an ambitious global treaty to end plastic pollution. The clock is running out on this “once-in-a-planet” opportunity to finalize an effective global agreement that addresses the full “life cycle” of plastic pollution by 2025.
