Leon County staff detail reuse, volunteer and water-refill efforts at World Cross Country Championships

Leon County officials described a suite of sustainability measures used during the World Athletics Cross Country Championships to reduce single-use waste and engage volunteers and local partners.

"We got several boxes of those shoes," said Maggie Theriot, Director of the Office of Resource Stewardship, describing a shoe-donation program that encouraged runners to leave used shoes after the event for reuse. Theriot said the approach reflected the county’s reuse emphasis across operations and events.

Staff also provided a water refill "wagon" and reusable aluminum cups on site to discourage single-use bottles. "That was such a great hit that we actually ran through 500 gallons of water fairly quickly that day to our surprise," Theriot said, noting the rapid uptake demonstrated community willingness to use reuse options when they are convenient.

Kate Lovett, the county’s Sustainability Manager, said the county trained about 10 volunteers on local recycling guidelines and stationed them at high-traffic areas so attendees would place waste into the correct streams. Lovett and Theriot also described a partnership with Sustainable Tallahassee’s Rags to Bags program and Florida State University’s Sustainable Campus Chuck It for Charity to convert donated fabrics and yard-debris-derived biochar into reusable bags filled with biochar as odor suppressors for volunteers.

Officials said these efforts showed how cross-division coordination—facilities, IT, parks, solid waste and volunteers—can integrate sustainability into large-scale events and leave reusable assets for future use.