Have you recently seen people carrying garbage bags while running? Or are their hands filled with used plastic bottles? You might immediately see people exercising by doing plogging around you.
The latest fitness hobby from Sweden now not only penetrates all of Europe but also every where and seems to be reaching Asia including Indonesia. This term is a combination of the words jogging and Swedish “plocka upp” which means taking.
Throughout Europe, they have communities both in Scandinavia, Germany and its surroundings. In the United States, India, Africa and even in New Zealand, this has begun to be applied especially to the runner who are fed up with garbage along the route where they exercise.
Benefits of Plogging Compare to Jogging
These sports activities not only help the environment, but are good enough for your health. Think of doing squats while jogging. According to the Sweden-based fitness app, Lifesum, it allows users to track plogging activities. Jogging half an hour and picking up trash will burn 288 calories far more than 235 calories burned by just jogging. If you make a brisk walk, fewer calories will consume only about 120 calories.
The nice thing about plogging is that anyone can do it. #Plogging and #plogga hashtags are used by everyone who combines sports with taking garbage, including runners, pedestrians, mountain climbers, cyclists, and even paddlers.
What do you need when plogging?
At the most basic level, what is needed is the hand and the willingness to be dirty. Many discarded plastic bags can be found along the way and they are really everywhere and you can fill them along the road. Another alternative is to throw garbage in the trash along your route. You can also bring a backpack for water so that your hands are free to pick up trash.
Mayokun Iyaomoler, the “chief investigator” of the Plogga Club of OAU, an organized group at Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria, said that its members carry recycled garbage bags and wear garden gloves and even masks.
One community from India said his group in Delhi carried non-plastic gloves that could be reused as well as jute bags, which could be reused. Runners say that plogging can be fun because you do something positive and it can make you feel like a child again. Plogga’s founder, Ahlström, said that this sport could strengthen the euphoric experience because it was like a treasure hunt. You have fun and that makes you addicted.
Physiological gymnastics, Ruby, compared plogging activities with 5K running activities that gave participants t-shirts and medals. The plogger’s medals are certainly different. They not only have one medal at the finish line but they have a collection of bottle caps throughout the trip and that makes it more vibrant.
The ploggers also use social media to connect and exchange ideas with other ploggers, encourage newcomers, publish plogging events, and promote the activity itself, often in beautifully arranged photos before posting.
For many ploggers, Instagram images from their hunting results after plogging are as beautiful as those posted by food lovers and fashionistas. With one simple picture, you can tell a story and show the public that by plogging you are trying to protect what you love is a clean environment, free of garbage.
