What the Heck is Plogging? A Group Was Recently Plogging in Portland

I rolled down my window and thanked the ploggers!

Let me back up. I was driving in Portland recently when I saw a group of very fit people with trash bags picking up trash in the huge median between the east and west traveling lanes of the Franklin Arterial. It was a pleasant sunny afternoon and I rolled down my window as I slowed down approaching Cumberland Avenue. I yelled out, 'Thank you!'. I thought it was wicked nice of them.

Then I saw them heading up Cumberland Avenue and had to stop and ask what exactly were they doing? Were they a sanctioned group? Were they just friends out together cleaning up Portland?

That's when they told me they were plogging. Turns out that plogging is a combination of jogging and picking up trash. Ahhhhh, plogging. Although they all admitted that they do a whole lot more picking up trash than actual jogging. They were with the Runaways Run Club. A group that gets together and yes, you guessed it, runs. But they also get together and hit areas in Portland and pick up trash. I loved it. They were all in great shape, so they obviously get in some jogging. Cumberland Avenue was getting trashed picked up by about a dozen or so ploggers.

Plogging isn't just a thing this run group made up - it's an actual thing! Of course, it was invented in Sweden. According to Wikipedia:

Plogging is a combination of jogging with picking up litter. It started as an organized activity in Sweden around 2016 and spread to other countries in 2018, following increased concern about plastic pollution. As a workout, it provides variation in body movements by adding bending, squatting, and stretching to the main action of running, hiking, or walking. An estimated 2,000,000 people plog daily in 100 countries and some plogging events have attracted over 3,000,000 participants.

3,000? Well, Portland's dozen or so ploggers were the first I had seen or heard of it. I'm all for plogging! I might just stick to the picking up part, but maybe I'll do it faster for the exercise.