Have you spotted people toting trash bags while jogging? They do not need money, and they aren’t crazy, all they want is to be fit and to clean their native town. In fact, this has become so popular that internet searches such as skip bin hire sydney are going out of business! They aren’t really. But, this new sport has made an impact on the amount of waste we see around our towns and cities.
Sweden’s latest fitness craze – plogging – is making its way to U.S. shores.
As BBC, The Guardian and Daily Telegraph speak plogging is a combination of jogging with picking up litter. It’s got such an unusual name after Swedish “plocka upp”.
Plogging started as an organised activity in Sweden around 2016 and spread to other countries in 2018, following increased concern about plastic pollution. As a workout, it provides variation in body movements by adding bending, squatting and stretching to the main action of running.
The whole movement consists of just picking up any trash you see along the way while you’re jogging.
Author David Sedaris combines litter picking with exercise in the Parham, Coldwaltham, and Storrington districts of West Sussex, taking up to 60,000 steps a day in pursuit of local rubbish.
He was so effective in keeping his neighbourhood clean that the local authority named a rubbish removal vehicle in his honour. The Lord Lieutenant of West Sussex, Susan Pyper, said: “The sign on this truck is a very fitting way to say a huge ‘thank you’ to David for his tireless efforts … he is a real local hero.”
Erik Ahlström started plogging in the Swedish capital city, Stockholm when he moved there from the Åre ski resort. He created the website Plogga to organise the activity and encourage volunteers.
The Keep America Beautiful organisation is now promoting plogging to its affiliates and has found that some already combined exercise with clean up, such as the Trashercize program in Tennessee.
What is more, there are many IG accounts appeared in order to popularize plogging by sharing photos and vids of people doing fitness craze that involves literal garbage.
The WP talked to “plogger”: “I don’t think plogging replaces jogging as a daily activity,” she said. “If you turn your jog into a plog once a week or once a month, or turn your walk into a palk or your hike into a pike, you’ll get personal satisfaction. You’ll have an endorphin high from running, and you’ll know you’re helping your community.”
