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Plogging or how to explore beaches and mountains with an environmental commitment

2020-08-04T14:43:24.561Z


The activity unites sport with waste collection in natural environments. A new movement to which more and more followers are joining in Spain


Plogging is the neologism resulting from merging the Swedish expression plocka upp , which translates as pick up, and the English word running , run. It comes to define a practice that consists of picking up trash, bag in hand, while jogging. She was born in Stockholm around 2016, and has been spreading to the rest of the world thanks to word of mouth on social networks. In Spain there are already active movements, especially in Alicante, the Balearic Islands and Catalonia. The health crisis canceled several scheduled events, but this summer there is again activity, which will double from September. A different way to explore beaches, forests and mountains.

The first 'tour' of Europe

This summer, the Caro Cortés brothers plan to organize plogging activities in the Balearic Islands, which they will report on via the ibizasostenible.com website. Starting in September, they will resume the idea of ​​continuing with their national tour , which in March was suspended by covid-19 after having traveled four cities, in which more than 3,000 people participated and collected more than 4,000 kilos of garbage.

Waste separation after a plogging activity in Ibiza.

Nationale-Nederlanden Plogging Tour, which is announced as the first sport and ecology tour to be held in Europe, starts next September with several confirmed appointments in Spain: Malaga (European Capital of Sports in 2020), on September 20 and Ibiza , on the 27th of the same month. In Madrid, Teruel, Malaga, A Coruña, Bilbao or Mallorca it will be organized in the following months. Under the motto Do sport for the planet there will be hiking, diving, running or cycling combined with the collection of waste in natural and urban environments. Because even if it's called plogging you don't have to run, any way to move is worth it —including skates or walking — while removing waste. The challenge will be to remove more than 33,000 kilos of garbage from urban areas, beaches, forests and protected areas of the Natura 2000 Network. Registrations will be free and limited (next August 11 they will activate their website: www.ploggingtour .com). For consistency, no single-use paper or plastic will be used, and the CO2 emitted will be offset.

From Alicante to the rest of Spain

PloggingEspaña organizes activities in Alicante, the Valencian Community and part of Castilla-La Mancha: beaten along the coast and on the beach, open to everyone, including talks to raise awareness. "The important thing is not only the cleaning work, but the involvement of families, people of all ages; we seek inclusion," highlights its coordinator, Eduar Reyes Olivares. In summer, the participants get into the water and clean the Mediterranean in collaboration with the SUP and surf club Gondoler @ s.

Also from Alicante is PloggingRRevolution, founded by David de Castro two years ago. The number of people who congregate at each appointment has been growing since the first call, on the beach of San Juan, until reaching 40 or 50. To avoid more crowds on the coast this summer, they will resume their meetings in September. PloggingRRevolution has participated in actions outside its territory, such as a cleanup, organized by the local group WeLoveNature, on the Rambla Morales, in the Cabo de Gata-Níjar natural park, which was literally covered in plastic as a result of floods. And it aspires to become a speaker of any initiative of the style that is organized in Spain.

Group of participants in one of the outings organized by PloggingRRevolution.

On September 1, PloggingRRevolution opens an online store with ecological products based on the experience accumulated in the collections. "We find many toothbrushes and ear buds; we will offer sustainable alternatives, such as bamboo brushes," says de Castro. Also plogging bags made by Alma Nuestra with stained or broken fabrics donated by the Lázaro project, an association that collects clothes to reuse.

Cleanings on the Costa Brava and an international congress in Barcelona

The Mou-te pel mar Movement! (Move around the Sea!) Performs, from its headquarters in Palamós (Girona), coastal cleanings on the Costa Brava in collaboration with municipalities and fishermen's guilds. In just four outings (in Blanes, Rosas, Palamós and Sant Feliu) he collected 10 tons of garbage. Twinapp is a social network that facilitates contact between athletes (one of them acting as a local guide) to share running routes , cycling, eco-swimming or ecological swimming (which consists of swimming and collecting waste at the same time) and plogging . Behind these two initiatives is a team made up of, among others, Teresa Ferrés, coordinator of the first International Plogging Congress, BCN Plogging Congress, which was to be held in Cornellà (Barcelona) on March 13 and 14. It could not be, due to the health crisis. "This year we will probably do an online version and, in 2021, the face-to-face version," reports Ferrés.

Meanwhile, Mou-te pel Mar! She will continue proposing outings, which usually follow the same routine: welcome, explanation of what this new way of practicing sport with an environmental commitment consists of, warm-up (more muscles are exercised than if we just ran), the activity itself ( "Things have changed in these six months; we noticed that people are more aligned and receptive to plogging than before confinement," observes Ferrés.

Meet in Barceloneta (Barcelona)

Finnish Enni Karikoski started plogging in her native country, and continued this when she moved to Barcelona. For her, it is the way to combine her interest in running (she runs marathons and half marathons) and her environmental concerns (she is the co-founder of Niimar, a company that designs and consults under the precepts of zero waste). Little by little they were joined by friends, acquaintances, friends of friends ... until they set up a group on Facebook, Barcelona Plogging, and another on WhatsApp, through which they remain. They collaborate with the Sunrise Runners group, and have collected more than 5,000 liters (it is the unit of measurement they have used) of waste. They leave in the morning, very early. In September they will resume their activity.

Anyone can be a 'plogger'

Beyond established groups, who can guide and advise, the reality is that anyone can be a plogger. In fact, we are, even if we do not know the term, every time we walk, run or swim, and collect the garbage that we find. It is such a simple practice to apply at any time and circumstance that the Madrid travel agency Ki-Travels, specialized in author escapades and adventure, plans to use plogging as an activity within its programs. "It would be a way to raise awareness and materialize our commitment to the environment," he declares.

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Source: elparis

All news articles on 2020-08-04

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