Small actions are powerful. Erik Ahlström’s job was simply bending down to pick up some plastic containers abandoned on the side of a road. He did it while he was practicing the sport for which he had become famous, running. In 2016, when he moved to Stockholm from his hometown of Åre, he noticed that there was a lot of garbage on the margins, and he devised a sporting activity that in less than a decade has reached the global level and that today moves thousands of enthusiasts to Practice it regularly: plogging.
Plogging has no mystery and all you have to do is go out for a run or walk equipped with gloves to protect your hands and a bag in which to put the waste. Physical activity becomes intense, as you have to stop and start many times and do squats almost unnoticed. At the end of the session you return home with the double satisfaction of having taken care of your own health and that of the Earth.
From the fusion of the Swedish concepts plocka upp (pick up) and English jogging (running), Ahlström immediately baptized the activity as plogging. And since the runner was an ambassador for a prestigious sports equipment brand, it was easy for him to make his initiative known. From Sweden, plogging jumped to Central Europe and immediately reached Spain, it spread throughout Asia and the United States and now it is estimated that every day more than 20,000 people from 110 countries go out into nature to practice sports while cleaning the environment. Other disciplines adopted the system: fans of stand-up paddleboarding, scuba diving, cycling, canoeing, Nordic walking, skating… do the same.
At the beginning of plogging, upon arriving home the athlete found himself with the task of separating the different waste. From there came the initiative to organize group outings. The solution was as easy as one person dedicating themselves to plastic, another to cardboard, another to inert, another to metal, etc. Thus the selection was already made and, at the end of the excursion, all you had to do was place the bags in the respective containers for recycling.
In our country, plogging had flourished in isolated actions by sports clubs, city councils and councils. But in 2017, the Eleven and Blue Life foundations decided to create a Spanish initiative: they signed an agreement with the Higher Sports Council and launched the so-called Plogging Tour. “At the worst moment of 2020,” recalls its creator, Óscar Caro, “the pandemic broke out and we all had to keep our distance. But advised and with the maximum security guarantees, we began with scheduled outings to collect garbage in nature.” Since then, 23,000 citizens have participated in regular plogging excursions, collecting 54 tons of waste abandoned in the countryside.
Such a simple operating basis and a controversy-free objective has made it easier for large companies to support the activity. Electricity companies, banks, insurance companies… that have difficulty convincing those most aware of the environmental issues promote this practice. Today, more than 200 companies sponsor the Plogging Tour.
The circuit is European in scope. Volunteers are regularly summoned to pick up trash in nature while playing sports. They normally consist of three outings: 11 km for the fittest athletes; 5.6 for the least prepared; and a multi-adventure circuit for families with children or people with disabilities. You have to pay five euros for registration, and the proceeds are donated to NGOs or associations such as DalecandELA, which brings together patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. The calls for 2024 are as follows: Madrid (May 19), A Coruña (May 26), Barcelona (June 2), Bilbao (June 9), Málaga (September 22), València (October 5) and Ibiza (October 27). All the details can be found on the Plogging Tour website.
Although the practice of plogging is very intuitive, its promoters recommend warming up before starting so that the muscles are prepared; always wear gloves and be very attentive to sharp or sharp objects; change the handbag every 15-20 minutes; bend down by bending one leg and without demanding too much on the lower back and stay well hydrated and protect yourself from inclement weather during the route.
It is a sport whose participants immediately notice the beneficial effects on the body, due to the burning of calories (around 300 in half an hour), due to the repetitive squats and push-ups and the intensity required, although logically each practitioner sets the pace they prefers. You don’t have to pay for a gym or a personal trainer, and there is a lot of socializing, since the “brigades” of ploggers usually meet outside the organized circuits to go out into the mountains.
There are even plogging competitions. In fact, the world championship took place in 2023 in Genoa (Italy). The team that represented Spain, PinkPlogging from Jerez de la Frontera, achieved unbeatable results: Manuel Jesús Ortega was the champion; José Luis Sañudo came second; and Vanesa Perea, third. In total, they lifted 3,000 kilos of waste from the ground during the tournament, which included everything: cans of car lubricant, sofas, motorcycles, refrigerators… Logically, they couldn’t take everything they found, especially considering that the The race was 30 km and towards the end the bags were full and heavy. But the action was impressive, as well as a good sporting spectacle.
Plogging trips are usually organized in specific places so that the impact of the collection is very evident. Thus, delimited stretches of beaches, river banks, forests or peri-urban spaces are chosen. From one day to the next, the waste disappears and the appearance and health of the landscape improves.
Óscar Caro, from Blue Life, recognizes that the great objective is to ensure that the activity becomes a recognized sport. To do this, we must get six regional federations to organize a regular calendar and propose it to the Higher Sports Council. “The talks are already very advanced with the government of the Generalitat of Catalonia. If we get five more involved, we will have plogging as an officially established sport,” Caro declares. He is optimistic and believes it could happen within two years.
