You all know what “plogging” is, right?
I’m sure you do, but just in case, here’s Wikipedia’s explanation:
Not at all complicated and an activity that everyone of us can so easily undertake.
Those of you who follow my running feed on Instagram will have seen plogging photos over the months, usually on my evening walk in our local Biodiversity Park. Now this lovely park – while being quite clean by Delhi standards – always, always, always has trash. I have never returned from a clean-up empty handed. Which is super-depressing.
This evening, after a couple of months off, I went for an evening walk in the park. I have been running there a couple of times a week, and getting increasingly stressed by the amount of trash strewn along the path through the park. When I realised that I was passing the same beer can/the same water bottle/the same chip packet day after day, it was clear that no-one else was bothering to clean up.
Now here’s the thing:
- I can’t train properly and plog at the same time, even though it goes against the grain to run past trash, so a return clean-up walk every evening is the answer.
- I can’t claim exclusivity over cleaning up this park. I wouldn’t be so arrogant. BUT on the basis that the same trash is there day after day, week after week, and – in the case I’ll share with you in the video below – month after month, it looks as though no-one else is really bothered about it.
So, since it upsets me so much, I have no option but to pick up all this rubbish, since clearly it doesn’t offend all the other walkers and runners who use this lovely park every day.
Watch this little video I took, highlighting how rubbish can stay there for months…
I know this shirt was definitely there in March, because I was itching to pick it up, and my husband kept saying to leave it, in case someone claimed it, so it might well’ve been there even longer.
There was so much rubbish this evening, that my bag quickly filled up, and since it was a see through plastic bag (it rained today, so I feared a paper bag would tear) passers-by could see what I was carrying and I got way more comments than usual.
It’s nice of people to thank me, but on a day like today it was tempting to retort, “Well, you could’ve picked all this rubbish up, couldn’t you?” but churlishness ain’t gonna save the problem, is it?
One woman dramatically saluted me, saying “Salute” as she did so.
A tad OTT, but it was sweet of her.
She then asked me what I was going to do with it, so I replied that I’d dispose of it properly.
“I salute you again” she replied, doing exactly that.
“And now I want to touch you” she continued, which she also did, stroking my arm. A but odd, but no harm done…
As I said earlier, my bag was so full, I had to leave trash behind, which I’ll aim to pick up tomorrow.
For me, there’s no choice. It’s not my rubbish, but it is my world, my park, and my peace of mind.