What is 'plogging', the new Swedish trend that's good for you and the Earth?

Trends - people do love following them, don’t they. Love a shiny new bandwagon, so they do. “Oooh, a new thing” they’ll shout. “Let me do it immediately and without hesitation or research!” And then you see them doing it too, and so follow them blindly into the wilderness, to join in and do some ‘pogs’.

Anyway, Scandinavia seems to be leading the charge at the moment when it comes to trendy fads - first we had hygge (the Danish term for cosiness), then it was fredagsmys (a Swedish trend encapsulating indulgent nights in), next up was lagom (Swedish for ‘just right’, in Goldilocks terms, that is) and now we’ve arrived at plogging.

This hot new movement comes fresh and spicy from Sweden, and is an amalgamation of ‘picking up’ and ‘jogging’. Essentially, it’s going for a run and collecting any rubbish that you see along the way. So not only are you helping your body, you are also saving the world - you’re like a mega-fit superhero, a trash Avenger, you are: Bin Man!

Metro’s fitness expert Miranda Larbi said of the trend: “Plogging shares some characteristics with interval training, which uses recovery to improve fitness and fat burning. It’s also got elements of mobility training – reaching down to pick up rubbish will extend the range of motion that you’re using.”

So it’s no wonder it’s taken off on everyone’s favourite show-off arena: the internet. Particularly on Instagram, where a quick glance at the hashtag #plogging will dig up hundreds of people making absolutely sure that everyone knows they’re both staying fit AND helping the environment, it is the perfect showboat. 

Because, as everyone knows - if you haven’t taken a picture of it and screamed at everyone through an online megaphone afterwards, did you really even do it in the first place?

So get your trainers on, grab a bag and head on off to clean up those streets, you eco-warrior, you! Either that or put a skin-tight sweat-wicking top on, slam a headband on and then get your mum to take a photo of you taking the bins out - either is good.

(Image: Pexels)