If case you haven’t heard, “plogging” combines physical exercise and cleaning up your town and environment. It started in Sweden — “plogging” being a portmanteau of the Swedish phrase “plocka upp,” meaning to “pick up,” and jogging — and the craze has caught on around the world.
Here are five cities that celebrate Earth and Earth Day by hosting public “plogging” events.
Yinchuan, China
Plogging is picking up across China, with many seeing it as a civic duty, but perhaps nowhere more so than in Yinchuan. This city of almost three million people has seen plogging take off as a big trend, especially among the city’s youth.
“The environment in Yinchuan is constantly improving, and there’s not much garbage on the roadside. It’s great fun to see children rushing to pick up garbage,” said Xu Jia, a 35-year-old plogging enthusiast from Yinchuan, to Big News Network.
A plogging mega-event has been running for four consecutive years in China. “Plogging 2021” had over 25,880 participants in 256 cities collect more than 3 tonnes of trash.
Boise, Idaho
Boise Nice is a non-profit dedicated to, you guessed it, keeping Boise polite, pleasant, and nice, and this Earth Day they put on a citywide “plog” to clean up Esther Simplot Park, Ann Morrison Park, and Kathryn Albertson Park to name a few.
“Let’s go pick up litter, that doesn’t sound like a lot of fun, but plogging that sounds like a blast,” said Rourke O’Brien of Boise Nice to Idaho 6 News . “It’s kind of a name the will hopefully keep people in the mood to pick up litter before it gets piled up.”
Seoul, South Korea
In Seoul, elementary school students from the Dulwich College in Seoul (DCSL) gathered on the banks of the Han River on Earth Day and plogged with their parents and teachers. They were able to fill 40 bags of trash in the Banpo area near the river. “Sustainability is one of our core values and celebrating Earth Day is an important reminder to do our part to protect and preserve our natural resources”, said Gudmundur Jonsson, head of the college at DCSL.
Burlington, Vermont
The outdoor sports store Fjallraven hosted an event that leaned into the theme of Swedish culture, offering Swedish Fika (coffee and treats), motivating more Vermonters to plog with a raffle at the end of the day for National Park Passes. Vermont also properly celebrated Earth Day by educating people on composting methods.
Janesville, WI
Jansville, Inc. encouraged the whole of its town on radio to celebrate Earth Day weekend by taking up “plogging” and even motivated participants to join the beautification effort by taking a photo of themselves collecting trash and using #JanesvillePlogging to win prizes from downtown businesses
