Community Chat

[cotton4me]

I wanted to give kudos to all the ploggers out there and share the information with others.  There’s such a need for it.  I’ve been picking up litter for a few years on my walks but didn’t know it had a name.  I always carry plastic bags and gloves with me because I never know what I’ll see.  Today was a particularly heavy load and I was barely able to carry it until I got to a trashcan – glass beer bottles, food containers, water bottles, juice boxes, etc. 

Here’s an excerpt from a Washington Post article:

“Have you recently spotted people toting trash bags while jogging? Or their hands filled with old plastic bottles? You might soon.

Sweden’s latest fitness craze — plogging — is making its way to U.S. shores. The term is a mash-up of jogging and the Swedish “plocka upp,” meaning pick up. In this case, litter.

Across Europe, there are plogging groups in Scandinavia, Germany and beyond. In the United States, it’s just starting to catch on among exercisers who are fed up with rubbish along their route.

“I’m not going to just let litter sit there. I’m not going to just walk past that plastic bottle,” said plogger and Alexandria resident Emily Wright. “It’s not that I don’t think it’s gross to pick it up. I do. But I also think it’s gross for a person to not take responsibility for it.”

This is a photo I took after a rain storm.  It's a small area/fraction of what washes up each time it rains so you can imagine all the trash that is floating in the rivers, streams and ocean.   

[tampalady]

I do not Plog but have been picking up trash in my community and along roads in our area for at least 20 years.  I have picked up tons of trash over that time.  It is sad that you pick it up and the next few hours it is all back again.  People just do not care what is happening to our earth. 

[Big Joanie]

I don't know what possess people to do this ....

[Drythe]

@cotton4me

Thank you for picking up!  

I have never understood those who think this beautiful wold is their personal trash can.

[Daisy Sunflower]

Once in a great while, I'll see a used diaper in a strip mall parking lot. I guess they're too lazy to put it in one of the trash cans along the walk area.

[cotton4me]

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@tampalady wrote:

I do not Plog but have been picking up trash in my community and along roads in our area for at least 20 years.  I have picked up tons of trash over that time.  It is sad that you pick it up and the next few hours it is all back again.  People just do not care what is happening to our earth. 

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@tampalady  It's wonderful that you've been doing that for so long.  I didn't realize how much of a problem it was until I retired and began walking in a nature park every day.  It's unbelievable the things people throw on the ground or in the water.  Like you, I've picked up so much trash (as have a few others) that I can't imagine what the park would look like otherwise. There are no cleaning crews.  I don't know what people are thinking.  I worry about the effect it has on the wildlife as well as the humans.  

[cotton4me]

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@Daisy Sunflower wrote:

Once in a great while, I'll see a used diaper in a strip mall parking lot. I guess they're too lazy to put it in one of the trash cans along the walk area.

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@Daisy Sunflower

I don't understand people that can't walk to a trashcan.  I came across a dirty diaper in the creek the other day.  A family must have been swimming in the area and just threw the dirty diaper in the water.  I also found a lot of beer bottles and food containers in the same location.  It's really disgusting.  

[cotton4me]

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@Drythe wrote:

@cotton4me

Thank you for picking up!  

I have never understood those who think this beautiful wold is their personal trash can.

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@Drythe  Thank you.  I don't get it either.  I didn't realize how bad it was until I began picking up trash on my walks.  It made me much more aware of how much trash is laying around.  Now I notice it everywhere.  I don't know if that's a good or bad thing.  It drives me crazy - ha.  

[ID2]

We power walk every morning along our country roads. I never run across any trash. 

[akaburtonfan]

Good idea. Around my area you'd have to be careful what you're picking up because people have meth labs in the woods or they dump the stuff they use in the woods. 

I've never understood why people think it's ok to drop their trash any place other than a garbage can.