When Erik Ahlström moved from Åre, a ski resort town in central Sweden to Stockholm, he had a strong first impression of the capital: "Det ser ju ut som en soptipp," which translates as "It looks like a dump." Ahlström, an environmentalist, was put off by the amount of litter on the streets and in the parks, and resolved to do something about it.
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Enter a caption (optional)Ahlström's solution is pretty outside-of-the-box: He somehow managed to organize groups of joggers--armed with garbage bags and gloves--to lope through Stockholm with him, picking up litter as they go. He calls the practice "plogging," which combines the Swedish verbs "to pick" and "to jog."
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Enter a caption (optional)There are no English subtitles here, but you don't need them to understand what's going on:
Incredibly, it has caught on and become a downright trend. Check out #plogging on Instagram.
This dedicated fitness mom even does it while pushing her kid on a stroller, taking breaks to do inverted crunches:
The trend has also spread to France:
And to the UK:
Fitness nut Kathryn Bland in Cornwall, a dedicated plogger, also scored a paid gig cleaning a beach, where she's made quite an impact:
Bland is your average young female fitness nut on Instagram, posting photos like this:
But you have to respect that she's not afraid to get literally dirty:
Now that's hardcore.
I’m a lapsed industrial designer. I was born in NYC and figured I’d die there, but a few years ago I abandoned New York to live on a farm in the countryside with my wife. We have six dogs.
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New Swedish Fitness Trend, "Plogging," Combines Jogging with Picking Up Litter
The video didn't allow for community supplied subtitles so here is a rough translation I made for the Core77 readers:
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Hi, my name is Erik Ahlström. I have started Plogga, a grass root movement where we pick up litter and jog.
We have seen that littering has increased dramatically, 13% in Sweden in only one year. If we do nothing there will be more plastic than fish in the oceans by 2050 since 85% of all litter from land end up in the water.
- Stop! 45 minutes of plogging, how does it feel?
- Good, good. It makes a difference.
- What advice do you have? How do we make this country clean again?
- Everyone has to help out.
- It isn't harder than that, right?
- No.
Today we have been out with Tenant & partner and made a litter-free zone around their workplace.
Do you and your company also want to be environmental authors? Contact us at info@plogga.se
Max, thank you for this!
No trouble at all. But I just saw that I was really tired when transcribing/translating the video. In the end it should read "[...]want to be environmental heroes." Don't know what I thought of while typing that!
I have to wonder why there is so much litter in the first place. The Swedes are portrayed in the media as so progressive, why do they treat their capital like a dump? I guess they didn't grow up watching the TV commercials of the sad Native American with the single tear rolling down his cheek...
To all Swedes reading this, I apologize for the ignorance of Ross Oliver's comment.
Rain, I think Ross Oliver should come over here and form a first hand opinion of the state of our capital.
But yes, we in Sweden, as well as many other countries have a long way to go. Most countries I have visited have a problem with littering. In fact, the only country where I have been happy with seeing so little litter so far is Japan. We have a lot to learn from the Japanese people, their society and culture. Not even Singapore came close unless you stayed on Orchard street.
This is why I think initiatives like this one, Geocachings CITO (Cache In, Trash Out) or similar are needed. And we should highlight them more.