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Should finisher's medals be ditched to help the environment?
Just happened across this on facebook.... https://www.facebook.com/iconiccycling/photos/a.1515380715383296/2160670...
Basically the company that organises the Bike Oxford Bath and Chester sportives are not giving out medals any more to cut waste and instead offering a free photo. Seems like a pretty good idea to me but appears quite a few of the poential entrants aren't happy! Are these people being precious or should you expect the medal for the price of some of these sportive type events? Was going to enter Bike Oxford and just wanted some opinions before offering my support to them by entering! I do believe they're doing it with the right intentions, trust people here to offer a better counter-argument than some of the knuckle-draggers commenting on their fb page if there is one 
If you're new please join in and if you have questions pop them below and the forum regulars will answer as best we can.
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47 comments
Totally agree, I love the medal but the packets of Wiggle socks and buffs all over the house from finishers packs will end up in landfill if I ever get round to tidying up my house.
Wow, free buffs. I need to go to the sportives your going to. Honestly the medal isn't even the worst thing, how many free bottles of water are given out? Yes people need hydration, but the bottles are just sponsorship for people who want you to buy more bottled water. It's the same old argument; have us cut down on the little joys of life whilst systematic issues are ignored.
If those items were genuinely useful surely people would be happy to buy them with their own money, in which case no sensible business would want to just give them away!
Although by paying to enter it could be argued that you've effectively bought those items you didn't want.
The socks I do find useful,even if the colour faded notibly after one wash,the buff though...no its like extra small and cant even use it as a handy cloth to clean sunglasses with
I've done at least a dozen sportives in the last couple of years and I must admit, even at 46, I still really like the medal at the end. I don't think an ounce or two of pot metal is doing as much damage as me driving a couple of hundred miles to the event
.
on the topic of well meaning actions having unintended consequences....
It would be a really good idea to establish a causative pathway between scrapping medals and an environmental benefit, as it is quite possible that the lure of a medal is material in getting people to go in the events, which are material in getting people out on bikes, which is material in improving the fitness of people who are then more likely to replace car journeys with bike or walking journeys which leads to greater helath benefits which means less health system infrastructure / ambulances etc, and less roading infrastructure development etc.
Is it a good idea to scrap medals to reudce waste to improve the environment? only if it is demonstrably shown that that would be the case. Is it a good idea to scrap the medals.... only if an equal 'reward' is found so that participation doesn't suffer.
And as for the snide "get out more" comments: Remember, many of the people trying this for the first time are chldren, and a medal really means something to them, and we should get as many children involved as possible for their, and our, benefit. Also, for some people, completing a sportive, especially for the first time, can be something of a mini everest and so, yes, they should get out more, and the lure of a mdeal in plenty of cases is precisely what encourages them to do that, and we all benefit.
TBH all the people driving to the start will probably do more environmental damage than a few medals. Fine, ask people if they want one as many probably go in the bin, but don’t paint it as environmentally driven.
Or how about giving out pin badges rather than medals.
Ah, the old cost cutting wrapped up as 'eco'.
Probably?!?
And that's before the driving done by the organisers, the course setup people, the sponsors, the helpers and goodness knows who else.
They could give something useful (an inner tube & puncture repair kit?) to people who live within a certain radius and rode to the start. That will cut out 99% of the waste as nearly all of them drive half way across the country, often 1 person per car.
Does anyone really needs a medal to show that they rode a well-signed cycle route with free food and mechanical backup? Next thing you know they'll be asking if they can ride to school all on their own, without mummy there.
You'd deny the freebies to someone mad enough to ride in from outside your radius?
Definitely not! Kudos to anyone who rides a decent distance to an event, completes it and rides back.
Most sportive entrants travelling from more than a few miles away would drive. It's the same with reliability trials, less so with audax riders.
Why is a medal necessary? Is the satisfaction of doing it not enough? Why is a mass-produced piece of tin so desirable? Isn't the route the reason why you signed up to ride it? I'm struggling to see why it matters. And why is £25 your break point?
Do people need a medal for completing anything that take some time and effort, such as a particularly fiddly Airfix kit or a Where's Wally 1,000 piece jigsaw?
Perhaps race organisers should provide counselling for everyone who finishes 4th or lower as they won't get a medal.
no I dont feel the satisfaction is the same, the ones without medals the finish always feels just flat, its like going for a normal bike ride just riding the route left to your own devices, Im more than capable of doing that myself and not paying other people for the privilege
and £25 is my break point, bearing in mind some of the big sportives are nearing £50 turn up on the day prices now, because I feel thats a reasonably generous price to cover the costs for someone organising/planning an event on public roads and having a few feed stops along the way, if Im paying more than £25 then I expect more value in return and that to me then includes a medal. So Bike Oxford charging £32, at the early bird discount price, its £36 after Jan 1st, plus a booking fee...is that value for money for what you get now ? no imo
I think a medal is a lovely idea for someone who is entering their first, second or third sportive.. I remember thinking how nice it was to get a medal for finishing a 'big ride', that being a bit of a novelty and something to show MrsD.. but now I'm over it, between myself and my daughter we've collected more medals that we know what to do with... quite literally.
I think a printed map of a 'big ride' would be a far nicer thing to own, probably cheaper to produce and compostable. It'd probably be just as cheap to get it printed on a piece of material, you could call it a hankie and blow your nose on it.
Sounds fine to me. I think medals for bike rides is a relatively new thing ? I'd much rather have pics and a bite to eat.
Depends what/who the photo is of. If it's me, they can go hang ... I have to look at that in the mirror every morning, why the hell would I want a picture of it?
Ha Ha Haaaaaaa!
"No more bike Oxford for me, having a medal at the end of a race is The best feeling in the world"
You need to get out more
To be fair, it's the lure of medals that is making that person get out more.
I can't say that I'm motivated by medals, but I don't buy that scrapping the medals is going to make any difference to the state of the environment. Sounds more like a cost-cutting exercise to me.
What they could do is get the entrants to declare beforehand whether they want a medal or a photo.
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