Forget the fitness tracker: did you hear about the new must-have exercise accessory? It’s called, wait for it, a packet!
Yes, the simple packet (made of recycled plastic and reusable, of course), has been turned into the new must-have accessory that’s right on trend at present.
That’s if you are involved in “plogging”.
According to Wikipedia, plogging is a combination of jogging and picking up litter.
The word originated from the Swedish term “plocka upp” which means “to pick up”.
The exercise started as an organised activity in Sweden in about 2016, and now, with increased concern about the trash we’re generating, it has gained momentum and spread around the world.
A perfect combination for a greenie-exercise-loving type of person.
It’s sweeping, pun intended, across the world from Switzerland to Canada, India and France, where people are bending, squatting and stretching their way to a greener planet.
All one would need is a reuseable plastic packet and a pair of gloves to safely and hygienically handle trash. The trash should be correctly disposed off, and where possible, recycled.
Independent On Saturday Journalist Arthi Gopi writes about greening the environment.
In America, a Trashercise programme is also taking off, based on the same principles as plogging.
I’m not sure how Durban Solid Waste would feel about this, but in West Sussex in the UK, the local authority named a clean up vehicle after author David Sedaris who cleaned up his neighbourhood successfully by simply plogging. In fact, in one day he’d done 60000 steps. Imagine his pedometer keeping up with him.
A Swedish app loaded plogging as an activity and the activity is said to burn 288 calories every half an hour.
In coastal Durban, plogging shouldn’t be hard to achieve, what with several teams that go out regularly and hold clean ups along the shore and rivers, where tons of trash is collected by volunteers who want to keep our city green.
More recently, Jonsson Workwear, The Sharks, Bay Union and JT Ross launched the PLOG Squad campaign on Mandela Day to clean up their area around the Jonsson Kings Park precinct.
The concept makes sense: we should not only strive to lead healthy lives, by ensuring we get a great cardio workout every other day.
We need a healthy, functioning planet too, where rivers flow free of trash and other pollutants, and our seas and marine life are free of plastics.
I guess there’s nothing left to do but grab a packet, don a pair of gloves and trainers and head for the beach or streets, saving the planet one plog at a time.
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