Plogging is a combination of jogging with picking up litter and jogga. It 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, hiking, or walking.
Examples and initiatives
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. 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 waste 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." 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. In New York, a Meetup group, Plogging NYC, had about 100 members in 2018, with events in four boroughs. In Indianapolis in 2018, a Summer of Plogging was organised by the November Project and the local affiliate of Keep America Beautiful. National Cleanup Day advocates plogging as a way to clean up and keep the outdoors clean. There is a group in Oakland, CA, called Fit4Good that aims to pick up trash around Lake Merritt each week. The Indian PM, Narendra Modi, has plogged to lead by example for his Swachh Bharat Mission to clean up India. Pune Ploggers is the largest community of ploggers in a single city with more than 500 routine ploggers. They have collected more than 70 tonnes of Plastic in 8 months and were behind the largest plogging drive ever with more than 1,05,000 citizens participated across Pune. A non-profit initiative called Go Plog! has collected 16 Tonnes of dry waste in Kolar through plogging. They organise an event every month. Students to high-ranking officials of the local administration participate.
