The small Scottish seaside town of St\nAndrews is replete with a rich history which includes a castle and Scotland\u2019s\noldest university, founded in 1413.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 1754, the town witnessed another first\nwhen The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews was established. Today, St\nAndrews is also the home of The R&A which governs the sport worldwide\n(apart from the United States and Mexico) and organizes The Open, golf\u2019s oldest\nmajor championship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since 17 October 1860, when eight\nprofessional golfers assembled at Prestwick\u2014the venue of the inaugural\nchampionship\u2014to determine who would be the champion Golfer, the event\u2019s\nattendance has grown tremendously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In recent years, and as with most major\nevents, The Open relied on single-use plastic bottles to provide drinking water\nfor fans, players, staff and officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This summer, some 237,750 people attended\nThe 148th<\/sup> Open at Royal Portrush Golf Club in Northern\nIreland\u2014a figure only surpassed by the 239,000 who attended the championship at\nSt Andrews in 2000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, this year\u2019s tournament was also\nremarkable for another reason. For the first time in the last few decades there\nwere no single-use plastic water bottles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn previous years we utilized over 100,000\nsingle-use plastic bottles to supply water to fans, players, staff and\nofficials. In 2019, we sought a radically different and innovative solution and\nconsequently, developed The Open Water Initiative<\/a>, through support from the UN Environment Programme\n(UNEP) and the Clean Seas Campaign<\/a>,\u201d\nsays Philip Russell, Assistant Director of Sustainability at The R&A.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Open is hosted on a group of \u2018links\u2019\ngolf courses which are directly adjacent to the ocean on the United Kingdom\u2019s\ncoastline. The issue of marine pollution caused by single-use plastics is\ntherefore a particularly resonant theme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During the most recent edition, the\norganizers installed 19 water stations to provide free chilled, purified local\nwater. Fans were encouraged to bring their own refillable water bottles to the\nevent and The R&A handed out over 5,000 free stainless steel refillable\nbottles as a project promotion. The special edition bottles were also available\nto buy on site for US$5.50.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The initiative saw the successful removal of\nall single-use plastic water bottles\u2014a feat achieved after six months of\nplanning, design and development. To add further visibility to the project, all\ngolfers playing in the championship were given a personalized Players\u2019\nEdition stainless steel water bottle with their name laser-engraved on\nit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe have an important leadership role to\nplay in major sporting events\u2014we reach a potential 600 million households\naround the world on TV. The championship is a powerful platform to raise\nawareness about environmental issues and we are also working with national golf\nassociations to inspire change. We had to invest heavily in this project to\nbring it to fruition but we wanted to do our part to help restore the health of\nour oceans and raise awareness of the issue of marine plastic pollution,\u201d says\nRussell. While this year\u2019s focus was on tackling single-use plastic water\nbottles, golf\u2019s governing body is also evaluating alternative solutions for\nother drinks currently consumed in single-use plastic to drive further change\nmoving forward. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In February 2017, the UNEP launched the\nClean Seas campaign at the Economist World Ocean Summit in Bali, Indonesia. The\ncampaign engages governments, the general public and the private sector in the\nfight against marine plastic pollution. It calls on governments to reduce the\nuse of unnecessary single-use plastic and non-recoverable microplastic; targets\nindustry to minimize plastic packaging and redesign products; and calls on\nconsumers to change their throwaway habits before irreversible damage is done\nto our seas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMany UN Member States are taking action\nthrough the Clean Seas campaign to reduce single-use plastics through various\napproaches including product bans, taxes or levies and individuals are\nexamining their relationship with plastic. UNEP will continue to act as a\ncatalyst for change to drastically reduce the harm posed by marine litter,\u201d\nsays UNEP\u2019s marine litter expert Heidi Savelli.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Plastic pollution is killing our oceans. An\naverage of 8 million tonnes of plastic waste enters our oceans annually and the\nubiquity of plastic traces poses a serious threat to ocean and human health.\nFifty per cent of the oxygen we breathe comes from the oceans, and behavior\nchange is necessary, especially when up to 80 per cent of all pollution in the\noceans flows in from the land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n