Plogging: Why It's Good For You And Good For The Environment

WRITTEN by SUE HAYSOM

Welcome to the Plog Blog! Anne and Chris invited me to write this guest blog after I responded to their call to their online community for pictures of adventures, micro and macro, to include in their monthly newsletter. I sent a picture of Elli and me plogging - perhaps it was the big cheesy grins or the marigolds that caught their eye.

Or maybe the curious description:

“At the end of last month Elli and I headed out from our office for our first official Plog. The weather was foul so we kept it short. Twenty minutes later & with two full bags of litter we bounced back under a rainbow. Our first but definitely not our last plog.”

So, what is plogging? It’s a hybrid of jogging and picking up litter. The name was created in Sweden, Swedes ‘pluck’ litter apparently. It’s a relatively new thing, or at least the name is – I’m sure runners have been sporty wombles for years before the plogging name evolved and then went a bit viral.

I’ve been doing incidental litter picks ever since I started heading into the hills, as many hill-goers do. Careful to collect up our own rubbish we pop random litter into our rubbish bags as we go. The stuff that has been deliberately stashed is pretty annoying (e.g. a sardine can tucked into a cairn… aaargh!) but I try to be less irritated by the loose material. Let’s face it, who hasn’t had a food wrapper or tissue (… hat… gloves… insert item of choice) ripped from their hands in a full-on hoolie?

#TakItHame is the name of a campaign that Mountaineering Scotland launched last year, it’s a ‘does what it says on the tin’ type campaign: Take It Home. They’re keen to support their members to undertake and promote mountain litter-picks – if we take our own rubbish home from the hill and also pick up litter and talk about what we’re doing then maybe, just maybe, there’ll be a ripple effect and we’ll all see less litter on the hill. Last year’s campaign was a great success and they’re relaunching it this Spring.

So, if you’re a trail or hill runner you could go for a wild plog. You may need to alter your route as the litter picking element will slow you down but this won’t necessarily impede your training since you’ll get more of a whole body workout as you bend and stretch for litter. Don’t forget you’ll gradually increase the weight of the load you’re carrying too so it may be wise to set yourself a limit, e.g. a half full carrier bag,  to keep yourself safe.

My personal plogging evolved fairly naturally. I’m lucky enough to have a fantastic routine 5k home run that takes me through a park then woods, alongside a river, across saltmarsh and to the end of a pier in the Cromarty Firth. I turn and am greeted by a beautiful mountain panorama, covered in snow just now. The low point? Running past rubbish along the way. The playpark at the start is a particular hotspot so now I identify my litter targets on the way out and gather them up on the return and pop them into the playpark’s bin. Already on an endorphin and nature high this simple act can nudge just a little higher.

For our first official group plog Elli & I got organised. We touched base with the local community woods as landowners (only too happy for us to plog), we risk assessed (Mountaineering Scotland #TakItHame and JogScotland resources were helpful reference points for thist) and we prepped for sorting our collected material into various recyclable categories and landfill. Clearly, that’s the gold standard but if that seems like a step too far don’t forget that every piece of litter you retrieve from the wild is one less eyesore, wildlife trap or livestock choking hazard even if you don’t then sort & send the recyclables for recycling.

So, that’s plogging; surprisingly addictive and inclusive – runners of all speeds and abilities are levelled by suddenly darting off into bushes to capture a wayward crisp packet. Great for mind, body and planet… why not give it a go?

About the author

Sue Haysom is a professional ecologist, a freelance Mountain Leader and a Leave No Trace Advanced Trainer based in the Scottish Highlands. She also does a bit of writing on the side: a regular contributor of articles on mountain wildlife for Professional Mountaineer magazine and a range of her other articles and reviews have been published in Intrepid magazine.

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