In order to help race organisers to make their events kinder to the environment the international Cycling Union (UCI) has launched a new initiative that it calls “reCycling”. As part of the initiative the UCI has introduced its own eco-label which event organisers can add to their races should they meet a number of specified environmental criteria.
“The International Cycling Union believes it has a duty to commit itself to the wellbeing of the environment,” says a statement from UCI president Pat McQuaid in the guide’s foreword. “Cycling, as a means of transport and as a sport, is essentially an activity that respects nature. However, this does not mean that the cycling community as a whole should not reflect on the ways in which its members – starting with event organizers and National Federations - should act in order to be as responsible as possible in this domain.”
A guide has been published to help organisers to meet the specified criteria, including the creation of an “Environmental Management Plan”. It encourages practices such as recycling in order to minimise the environmental impact of all cycle events ranging from local mountainbike events to the Tour de France.
The initiative is also intended to fit in with the Olympic movement’s three-pillar concept, which recently added the word “environment” to those of “sport” and “culture”. According to the UCI “the working methodology of this guide is based on the SSET Toolkit, developed by the Organizing Committee of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games and the AISTS (International Academy of Sports and Technology), in Switzerland”.
The launch comes, coincidentally, just a few days after a Belgian environmental group calling itself “Coalition Nature” attempted to take a number of riders to court in Belgium for throwing away water bottles during the Flèche Wallonne race.