London (CNN Business) Thirsty while running? Here, have a seaweed ball full of sports drink.

More than 41,000 people will run the London Marathon on Sunday. When they reach mile 23, they'll be handed edible pods made of seaweed extracts instead of a plastic water bottle.

It's one way race organizers are hoping to reduce the huge amount of plastic waste generated during the endurance run. They want to cut the number of plastic bottles used by 200,000.

Our goal is to make plastic packaging disappear." Rodrigo García González and Pierre-Yves Paslier

The Ooho seaweed capsules are made by a London-based startup called Skipping Rocks Lab.

They can be cheaper to produce than plastic and the thin membrane that forms the pod is edible and tasteless.

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