The next event that Kara Bemis Yoga is hosting is a Plogging & Yoga event which might have people scratching their heads. WTH is plogging? Essentially it is a newly invented word that means collecting litter while on a jog. It is said to have originated from Sweden in 2016 and has since gone global via social media, so it seemed like a good idea to ride the trend and get local people interested in cleaning up their neighborhoods.

If like many people you are slightly averse to jogging and prefer walking and are also highly averse to seeing garbage scattered around your walking route, then have no worries because plogging can easily be translated into an event that takes place during walking or hiking at your nearest state park.

Before there was a trendy Swedish term for it, I have been unknowingly ‘plogging’ for years. It started while living in Costa Rica. My then Tico boyfriend picked up litter while we were on a walk at the beach and initially I thought it odd, to touch someone else’s ‘dirty’ litter, but I quickly realized that it wasn’t odd at all, and that if we were to all clean up beautiful places then the idea might spread. Maybe others would begin to do the same, heck maybe the people who mindlessly and selfishly through their trash on the ground to begin with would change their ways.

Is it dirty to pick up others garbage? Short answer no. More often than not the garbage is plastic. What’s the difference of picking up a plastic fork lying on the ground and touching a straw at a restaurant. Sure the straw at the restaurant is ‘new,’ but it’d likely had been handled by others before reaching your hands. It was handled in production, packaging, distributing, and from the restaurant employee to you. Same with a plastic bottle or bottle cap. What I do consider as dirty litter to collect is cigarette butts. Those are nasty little things, they’re called butts after all. They’ve touched others hands and lips and what is even nastier is that they are made from plastic, so everytime a smoker flicks their butts out of the car window they are littering. I wish police would enforce litter laws with all, but especially smokers, I think that they it is harmless to flick them out  of their hands and onto the grass, but who is going to collect them? Plus, they easily make their way down street drains and straight out of the outlet to the nearest river, lake, reservoir, sea, or the ocean. For cigarette butts I would recommend wearing cotton gloves to collect, such as gardening gloves.

If you have an interest in making  a change in your local area, start plogging today! If you live in are around Jamestown, NY, then join me next Saturday for a community plogging event that will include a free yoga class (taught by yours truly.) Wherever your walking path may be: a sidewalk, in the woods, up a mountain, or on the beach have a two minutes cleanup and share your little victory on social media by using #plogging to spread the movement.