Plogga activists in Ramsgate, UK. Courtesy Coastal Striders.
The Swedes are best in the world when it comes to things like driving on ice, sunbathing naked, and eating pickled herring. But recently they seem to have cornered the market in sustainable awareness catchphrases too. Thunberg, flygskam, sustainable fashion – and now plogga. By Jeremy Torr.
Stockholm, July 2021. Erik Ahlström is a keen runner who used to live in the north of Sweden, in a small skiing town called Åre. He happily pounded the remote trails for years, and would pick up the occasional discarded snack wrapper or bottle if he saw one. It became a habit.
Erik Ahlström started a worldwide movement collecting rubbish on the run. Courtesy E. Ahlström
In 2016 he moved back south to Sweden’s capital city, Stockholm. “Then (when) I moved back to Stockholm - I hadn’t lived there for 20 years - I noticed there was so much garbage on the streets,” he says. “And it was just laying there for weeks and months, and no-one was picking it up. I felt ashamed that Sweden was so dirty,” he adds.
Rather than take the conventional route of grumbling to his friends over a beer and writing a complaining letter to the council, Ahlström decided to do something on his own – and to start a worldwide movement to rival flygskam. He started taking a bag with him when he was out jogging, and picking up any litter and waste he saw on the way. He would then carry it home and dispose of it properly. Soon, his trail-running friends started to join him in his jog-picking.
“I am a trail runner and connected to a lot of people in the running community,” he explained in a recent interview. “When those people started running with me, and picking up garbage (too), I noticed something was sparkling in their eyes. It was… like a treasure hunt, but for garbage.”
Like any Swede, Ahlström realised he would need a catchy phrase to describe what he was doing, rather than calling it ‘collecting litter as I run’ which wasn’t very punchy. Accordingly, he conflated two Swedish words plocka (to pick up) and jogga (to go jogging) and minted a new sustainable fitness word: plogga.
The beauty of plogga is that the whole family can join in - with a glint in their eye, says Ahlström.
“Since then,” notes Ahlström, “I’ve found that once people start plogging, they can’t stop.”
The bonus according to plogga’s devotees, is that it isn’t just good for the environment in terms of removing plastic and metal waste, but it also benefits the plogger much more than just straight running or jogging.
According to devotees, plogga uses way more muscles than the usual jogging. Ploggas test and extend their abs and glutes each time they bend or squat to pick up a piece of ground-level litter. They also get in plenty of flexions as they stop and twist to pop the can or bottle in their rucsac. And the overall increase in carried weight as the load increases during a run puts more tension on the arms and shoulders. And the simple act of stopping to pick something up acts as a basic form of interval training allowing muscle relaxation and tension on a regular basis. Which all helps keep fitness up and reduces consequent health problems.
“People are not made for sitting down. We have to move,” notes Ahlström. “Everybody knows we’re eating too much, we’re becoming overweight, and that leads to disease. So we have to get the grown-ups and the kids moving, and this is a fun way to do that. It’s running, but running with a purpose.”
Ploggers dedicate their runs to taking rubbish off streets and trails so they can’t cause harm to nature and ecosystems. They usually take discarded bags or recycled bags so they contribute to minimisation of the waste stream, but always bear in mind the collection of discarded and potentially damaging litter.
Partly because of its obvious benefit to the landscape, the environment, and the health of its participants – but partly, we suspect because of its name – plogga has become a worldwide hit with some 100 countries now boasting active groups in places as far ranging as Argentina, Netherlands, Germany, Vietnam, Mexico, the UK, Iran, Korea, Turkey and India.
“Now, people around the world are talking about plogging – across at least 100 different countries, on all continents. It’s a big craze. We have about 10,000 people in India that are plogging more or less every week,” says Ahlström. “And we have a world record in Mexico City, with over 4000 people out plogging in a single day.” Impressive.
As he notes, ploggers are proud litter pickers: “changing the world and improving out health before it is too late.” Grab that bag and join in, why don’t you?
Plocka jogga rules!