Staying fit the environment friendly way

The trend is about running while collecting litter. “Plogging” is coined from “jogging” and the Swedish term plocka upp, which means “to pick up”.
Last week, the Blue Carbon Society (BCS) promoted plogging in Thailand by mobilising hundreds of volunteers to collect trash on Samut Prakan’s Bang Kachao, an artificial island formed by a bend in the Chao Phraya River. 

Participants came to the event titled “Blue Plogging” with plastic trash bags and water bottles to avoid creating waste. 
They scooped up trash along the running route and received a medal for their good deeds when they reached the finish line. 
Bang Kachao is an island in Samut Prakan’s Phra Pradaeng district. Formed by a bend in the Chao Phraya River and a canal, the island is often described as “Bangkok’s green lung” for its mangrove forests and rich biological diversity. The area was picked by Time magazine in 2006 as Asia’s “Best Urban Oasis”.
But Bang Kachao has suffered increasingly from garbage accumulation since the Bang Nam Phueng floating market became a famous tourist spot. Litter left on the island each day has risen has nearly doubled to 8,000 kilograms from around 4,500kg in 2004.
A study by the Bang Kachao Sub-district Administrative Organisation found that plastic bags made up a major portion of this rubbish (40 per cent), followed by organic waste (26 per cent), recyclable items such as glass bottles and milk cartons (24 per cent), general garbage (8 per cent), and toxic waste (2 per cent).
BCS staged the “Blue Plogging” event in collaboration with DT Group of Companies and Shellhut Entertainment to clean up litter and highlight how rubbish – especially plastic items – can damage coastal and marine ecosystems.

Established by Dr Jwanwat and Thippaporn Ahriyavraromp earlier this year, BCS is a non-profit association dedicated to pushing for action to protect and restore ecosystems such as mangroves, seagrass meadows and salt marshes.
“Imagine that one person can collect 2kg of trash in half a day … If 60 million Thais rolled up their sleeves and start plogging together, then 120 million kg of trash would be eliminated,” Jwanwat said.
He said “Blue Plogging” was in line with BSC strategies to protect the seas and conserving biological diversity of marine and coastal ecosystems.
“Rescuing these marine creatures from plastic debris ensures the balance of marine ecosystems and their function as a ‘blue carbon’ sink,” Thippaporn said.