Written by Katie Smith
This story was originally published in March 2021.
For years I’ve been riding the back roads of my town. Although it’s quite a rural area, I always see a piece or two of trash on the roads I pass. My daily routine is to pick it up on the way home, shove it in my pocket, and throw it away when I get home.
But last summer, I noticed that more and more people were walking or jogging with garbage bags while dealing with daily burns. As it turns out, this practice has a name: “plogging.” This new trendy sports nickname was coined by Erik Ahlstrom in 2016.
Ahlström moved to Stockholm and was troubled by the amount of trash he saw during his daily exercise. He started picking it up every day and called it “plogging.” It’s a combination of jogging and the Swedish word “plocka upp” which means to pick up.
Thanks to social media, this environmentally and physically beneficial exercise trend is taking the world by storm.
Peggy Brown of Brunswick has been picking up trash while training for more than two years. She was also joined by her daughters and a few friends.
“I bring recyclable shopping bags like the ones you use to buy groceries at Shaw’s or Hannaford, and I also wear gloves. Once my bag is full, I go home and drop off my stuff. Sometimes right away. Sometimes my bag gets full, so I go home, put it down, and go back out for more walks,” Brown said.
On other days, I drive to different locations and collect more trash during my walks. Sometimes it can fill several full-sized garbage bags.
Ned Swain, a Portland resident, said he picks up anything he finds on his runs and posts about it on social media to spread the word.
“You’re on the go anyway, so why not? It doesn’t cost anything to pick up trash. It may not be a lot, but it adds up to over 100 pounds of plastic waste in a year. We also found several gallons of oil and hydraulic fluid. We’re really glad we were able to keep them out of the watershed,” Swain said.
Swain, who has been plogging for about two years, said the things he most often reaches for are Dunkin Donuts cups and small alcohol bottles known as nips. “I think my record is one he ran three miles and he 37 empty nips.”
Not only can walking or running with the weight of trash on your back give you a little extra workout, but some people also do squats and lunges to pick up trash and get a little strength training there.
But the biggest benefit of all is that you can go out and pick up all the extra trash from the roadside that would otherwise end up in our lakes, rivers, and oceans, getting stuck, or being blown away.
Next time you go out, pick up a bag and see how quickly it fills up. Like Swain said, it’s free and he’s heading there anyway, so why not?
