On October 5, 2020 the 12th grade student Nikola organized a plogging activity at Jānis Eglītis Preili State gymnasium. She is a keen supporter of an active lifestyle and green living. Her initiative was supported by volunteers from the 10th, 11th and 12th grades. The activity goal was to promote plogging among young people and make us being more aware of the environment as an integral part of our life.
There were 13 students, provided with vests, gloves and garbage bags. The participants were divided into 2 groups, each following a separate route. One of the groups plogged in Preiļi Park and collected litter around the park canals, river, beach and pond. The other group picked garbage around the town new street.
Later the students met the manager of the Town Waste Management Department and the Public Relations specialist who informed the participants about the waste management in the town, its sorting areas and where the waste is delivered after collecting.
The participants had shared feelings: on the one hand, it was great job satisfaction and pleasure for the work done, but, on the other – some bitterness that there are peole who do not care about nature and throw out their waste wherever they go.
* Plogging is a combination of jogging with picking up litter (merging the Swedish verbs plocka upp (pick up) and jogga (jog) gives the new Swedish verb plogga, from which the word plogging derives). It started as an organised activity in Sweden around 2016 and spread to other countries in 2018, following increased concern about plastic pollution. As a workout, it provides variation in body movements by adding bending, squatting and stretching to the main action of running, hiking, or walking.
