Go plogging with your club

• Bring bags and gloves to your weekly club run, and pick up rubbish along the route
• Share the load: a few runners on bag duty, everyone else spotting
• Bin it, recycle it or cash in the containers back at the start
• Snap a photo of the crew with the haul to log this pledge

Plogging started in Sweden around 2016, mixing plocka upp (pick up) with jogga (jog). It’s since spread to run clubs all over the world, and it makes sense. You’re out on the same loop every week, so who better to look after it?

Plastics made up 80.8% of the litter counted at Clean Up Australia events in its latest Litter Report, and cigarette butts were the number one item. CSIRO says most of the rubbish on our coast comes from Australian sources near our cities, washed there by stormwater and blown by wind. So the chip packet you grab on a suburban footpath on Tuesday night never makes it to the beach.

Doing it as a club makes it stick. Same crew, same route, a bag or two every week. It’s a lot more fun than going it alone, too.

Because protecting the places we play is a team sport. 💙

• Brief the bunch: A quick word before you head off: who’s carrying bags, where you’ll regroup, and what not to touch.
• Gloves on: Thick gardening-style gloves beat thin disposables. Keep a few spare pairs in the club kit bag.
• Leave the nasties: Never pick up needles or syringes with your hands. Don’t touch asbestos, chemical drums or silver canisters either. Mark the spot and tell council, or call 000 if it’s urgent.
• Stay off the road: Stick to footpaths, parks and trails. Roadside clean ups need council approval and hi-vis.
• Treat it like a fartlek: Surge to the rubbish, squat, grab, jog on to the next one. Your quads will know about it tomorrow.
• Cash in the cans: Every state and territory has a container deposit scheme, with 10c back for each eligible bottle or can. Put the refunds towards the end-of-season do.
• Make it count: Log what you find with Tangaroa Blue’s Australian Marine Debris Initiative (AMDI). That data helps trace rubbish back to where it comes from.
• Already plogging solo? Bring it to the club. More eyes on the ground means more rubbish in the bag.