People collecting litter from streets while running for exercise has recently become hugely popular in many countries around the world. This idea of voluntarily picking up rubbish while running or jogging is called plogging.

About 25 employees of a company in Stockholm were getting ready to jog through the city's streets – and not just to jog, but to go plogging together. Group plogging has recently become popular in various European countries. Along with their running gear, they carry a bag so they can pick up litter lying on the road as they run.

Plogging was invented in Sweden, but it has now caught on in Japan, the United States and various European countries.

Alexander Alstrong, who came up with the idea, explained how he started plogging. "I first started cleaning up rubbish from the streets while staying at a ski resort in Finland. Back then I picked up litter while walking," he said.

Some time later he came to Stockholm and saw that litter lay on the streets there too, with no one clearing it. So, to clean up his own city, he began picking up rubbish from the streets himself.

"One day while jogging I started picking up litter on the road on my own," Mr Alstrong said. "Within a few days people noticed and became enthusiastic."

Source: BBC Bangla. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.