The article we ran on greenwashing last week was timely, since similar accusations have now been made against aspects of the Olympic Games, currently being staged in Paris and a Games that we were told would be the most eco-friendly ever - reducing by half the amount of single-use plastic used at the London Games in 2012. Apparently at some venues, drinks servers for key sponsor and one of the world’s biggest plastics producers - Coca-Cola, are pouring the contents of its 50cl plastic bottles into reusable plastic ‘eco-cups’. Bearing in mind that these cups can be dropped, stamped on and broken in all the excitement, wouldn’t it be better just to give punters the plastic bottles, to avoid the need to eventually recycle two containers per drink, rather than one? 

  

On the plus side though, the company installed some 700 soda fountains where it could, and in some cases is using glass bottles rather than plastics - which it says will account for more than half of its drinks sold. And punters being served their drinks in the Games-branded eco-cups are being encouraged to return them thanks to the deposit scheme. At just €2, though, I daresay most will keep them as souvenirs! 

  

I love that teams living close enough, have travelled to Paris by train rather than plane, and that the vast majority of Games sites are existing venues or temporary structures, and that the new-build projects have been executed with the environment in mind – such as the act of transporting rubble down the Seine by barge rather than taking it by truck. It’s great that the athletes' apartments will later be converted into homes and that the bedside tables have been fashioned from recycled shuttlecocks. That the site features a water treatment centre, which collects and purifies wastewater for future use is brilliant; as is the use in one building’s toilets of purified rainwater, along with a system designed to separate urine from faeces, (both of which can be put to use as fertilisers or briquettes). I’ve been talking about this type of separation and use virtually since Cleanzine was launched nearly 23 years ago, so wonder why it’s not already being done all over! 

  

What I hate is that some organisations are saying that we need to reconsider holding a global sporting event if we’re to reach net zero targets in 2050, and that we should perhaps hold such events over various locations rather than have millions of spectators flying to the host city. May I respectfully suggest that these naysayers take a running jump? To mess with something that draws us all together – particularly in the current political climate – is, frankly, ridiculous!