As a part of the “Dunk It – Don’t Junk It!” campaign, LDP and partners would like to encourage everyone to get out and plog! Plogging is a combination of jogging (or walking) and picking up litter. The term comes from the English “jogging” and “plocka upp” a Swedish term that means “picking up”. Plogging began in Sweden in 2016 and has become a worldwide fitness craze as well as a social media trend.
What is Plogging?
Plogging is essentially regular old jogging (or walking) but with an eco-friendly twist. Here’s how it works: While jogging through a town or neighborhood, instead of simply focusing on your pace or listening to music, plogging asks runners to pick up some litter along the way. Help the Earth and improve your community as you go.
Research has shown that plogging burns more calories than just jogging. Bending over to pick up trash means you are stopping and doing intermittent squats as you run; you are reaching and stretching as well. While 30 minutes of jogging burns 238 calories for the average person, plogging will burn about 288!
How Does Plogging Help?
Mike Rosen, with the Keep America Beautiful organization, said there are earth-friendly effects of going for a plog: “Litter impacts our quality of life and economic development and often ends up as marine debris, polluting our waterways and oceans and harming wildlife and the environment.
Plogging is brilliant because it is simple and fun, while empowering everyone to help create cleaner, greener, and more beautiful communities. All you need is running gear, and a bag for trash, and you are not only improving your own health, but your local community too.”
A search on social media sites for #plogging, #ploggingrun, #ecorun and several other hashtags will reveal thousands of posts showing people holding up their bags of trash collected while running or walking. Grab your running shoes and a trash bag and join the craze – go plogging! And don’t forget to post those pictures with #plogging, #dunkit.
