Plogging: The Eco-Friendly Way to Jog
Sweden is the most sustainable country in the world. Among one of the top ten globally respected countries in the Environmental Performance Index (for over a decade) with exceptionally clean air, clean water, and low emissions. Sweden sets a new standard to be admired and matched by other countries. An effort to be more green has seeped into their collective mindset and people are always finding new ways to reduce, reuse, repurpose and rethink.
One of these initiatives is plogging, a clever combination of jogging and picking up litter. Following increased concern about plastic pollution, Erik Ahlström started plogging in the Swedish capital city of Stockholm in 2016, where he created the website Plogga to encourage others to join in the effort. Since then, plogging has grown internationally. In fact, an estimated 2,000,000 people plog daily in 100 countries and some plogging events have attracted over 3,000,000 participants.
As a workout, plogging provides variation in body movements by adding bending, squatting, and stretching to the main action of running, hiking, or walking. Perhaps you’re interested in starting or joining a plogging event near you. Here’s a snapshot of plogging activities around the world.
Plogging Around the Globe:
In the US, the Keep America Beautiful organisation and National Clean Up Day advocate plogging as a way to clean up and keep the outdoors clean. More information is available on the website plogging.org.
In the UK’s Parham, Coldwaltham, and Storrington districts of West Sussex, the American humourist and author David Sedaris, takes up to 60,000 steps a day in pursuit of local rubbish. He’s been so effective in keeping his neighbourhood clean that the local authority named a waste vehicle in his honour.
In Alicante, Spain, plogging was branded as Plogging RRevolution with the aim of spreading the movement throughout the country to promote sports and environmental care.
In India, Pune Ploggers, founded by Vivek Gurav, is the largest community of ploggers in a single city with more than 500 routine ploggers. To date, they’ve collected more than 40,000 kilograms of plastic. In December 2019 they coordinated the largest plogging drive, with 105,000 people involved who collected 19,000 kilograms of trash in one hour.
Photo by Alex McCarthy on Unsplash
