WATCH: Plogging comes to Jersey

Monday 16 April 2018

Have you ever thought of bringing gloves and bin bags on your morning run or weekend walk? Swedish people have and plogging was born. The rules are pretty simple: you pick and you jog. The trend has now reached Jersey and local ploggers are now hoping to see it spread.

Richard Davy, a 58-year-old personal trainer and former firefighter, convinced his 'fitness group' to start plogging in March.

Made up of Richard's friends, the group used to meet on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays for a bit of exercise outdoors. But since Richard introduced them to plogging, the workouts have been looking a lot different. Now, before setting off, the group picks up plastic bags and pairs of gloves after lacing up their trainers. Richard says that explaining what plogging was, was actually harder than convincing his friends to pick up the trend, literally.

He said: "We have this fitness group for a while and it evolved from there. It was weird. When I first talked about plogging, they asked ‘What’s plogging?’ So I sent them a video and said ‘Have a look it’s from Sweden’ and once they knew, they were all keen. I just provide the bits and bots the gloves and bags."

Video: The Jersey ploggers out and about on the sand dunes in St. Ouen.

Having noticed on his runs how much litter was scattered on the island, Richard himself didn't have to think much before starting to plog. He explained: "Whilst you are out running, you do notice the sort of mess and the waste that is around. Well at first, when you are running or cycling, you don't notice, until you actually look. And when you look, you see there is actually quite a lot. So this started in Sweden and then it started kicking off so I thought why not do it here?

After only a month of plogging, the group has already filled up 52 bags. The bulk of it was made of plastic bottles and wrappers, cigarette buds, glass bottles, crisp packets but also some more unusual finds. So far the team has found a pair of kid's shoes, car parts, an almost complete computer and a generator. After each session, Richard says he is surprised by the amount found. "When you run, it sounds daft, but you don’t look'" he explains. "You are not looking otherwise you would be tripping over. But if you start actually looking for waste, you stop there, there and there. And there is a large amount. We collected 30 bags in 19 little areas.

"It’s sort of highlighting the fact that we do have to look after our environment because otherwise one day it’s going to do a lot more damage. Yes some of it you can put down to being blown out of dust carts or whatever, but then there is other ones that do have to be physically put there."

Pictured: Among the Jersey ploggers' most interesting finds, a computer base.

For the fitness specialist, plogging is an easy trend to adopt. He says that others should be easy to convince as it is a win-win for everyone involved as well as the island as the whole. He says: "On the exercise front, you can get people to do it, walking, talking and just picking up as you go. You can intertwine it into a running or jogging, same sort of thing. I know it sounds quite bad but it depends how bad the area is, if you are forever picking up stuff, you can’t really run.

"The other way is, if you go from point back to point, then hopefully if you cleaned it one way, you will be able to run back. It’s the same with taking the dog for a walk, taking the kids out in the pram or the kids just for a walk, there is nothing wrong with taking a bag, grabbing and picking stuff here and there. You do it as you go along. You are basically killing two birds with one stone, exercise-wise, you are out in the open, and doing your bit for the environment."

Mindful of the environment - he wants to open a plastic free business, where customers would come to a mobile unit with their own containers to get their fill of cereal bars, dry food and chemical-free cleaning products - Richard says that more could be done to invite people to dispose of their litter responsibly. One of his wish is to see the back of plastic bags once and for all, but he says a few recycling bans wouldn't hurt either. 

He explained: "If you really want to stop plastic bags, you do it, you ban it overnight. Other places have done. You sort of have to force people’s hands. And that is the sort of thing, once you do it, then you think ‘I should have done it before.’

"The same way; If you wanted people to do proper recycling, you would provide the proper bins. People go to the beach and get their bags and when they leave they see the bin and put this there, that there… but if it’s not there, you can’t. You are stuck between a rock and a hard place. Because if you really want to recycle, you go for it. It's a really busy area around Le Braye, Le Port and even further down with the surf and the kids. So if you got the correct bins, people will use them and the stuff will get put away correctly."

Pictured: The Jersey ploggers in action in St. Ouen.

The team as a whole hopes that their efforts will soon convince others not only to hop on the plogging bandwagon but also to stop throwing things away outdoors. Their most recent session from Plemont to Greve de Lecq on Friday, however showed that there is still a long way to go. After running for 3k, they had filled up six bags and collected a dozen wine bottles, about as many beer cans, a chair and even a generator. As Richard posted on the 'Plogging Jersey' Facebook page, it was all "within 200m of the car park."