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Sustainable Design

New Swedish Fitness Trend, "Plogging," Combines Jogging with Picking Up Litter

Clean up your neighborhood while staying fit

By Rain Noe - February 2, 2018

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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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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There are no English subtitles here, but you don't need them to understand what's going on:

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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:

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The trend has also spread to France:

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And to the UK:

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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:

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But you have to respect that she's not afraid to get literally dirty:

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Now that's hardcore.

Rain Noe

Rain Noe is a writer and industrial designer based in New York City.

6 Comments

Max Z

a year ago

Z

2Z

Reply

The video didn't allow for community supplied subtitles so here is a rough translation I made for the Core77 readers:

--
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

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- Rain Noe
  
  Max Z
  
  a year ago
  
  Z
  
  Z
  
  Reply
  
  Max, thank you for this!
  
  !Report as spam
  - Max Z
    
    Rain Noe
    
    a year ago
    
    Z
    
    Z
    
    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!
    
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Ross Oliver

a year ago

Z

Z

Reply

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...

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- Rain Noe
  
  Ross Oliver
  
  a year ago
  
  Z
  
  Z
  
  Reply
  
  To all Swedes reading this, I apologize for the ignorance of Ross Oliver's comment.
  
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  - Max Z
    
    Rain Noe
    
    a year ago
    
    Z
    
    Z
    
    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.
    
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