‘Plogging’ in the Palisades

By RILEY KESTON | Junior Reporter

According to Google, plogging is a Swedish term for picking up trash while jogging, but that doesn’t mean we can’t do it here in the United States too. After all, every day I hear people complain about how dirty the streets are. It used to make me mad, but my grandma once told me that if I wanted something done, I should do it myself. So that’s exactly what I did.

My mom and I now call ourselves the Palisades Ploggers. Along with our dog (and sidekick super mutt) Tiki, we roam the streets from Marquez to the Huntington looking for trash. We both wear gloves and carry sticks with pointy edges to spear the trash that we call plogging devices, and my mom carries a bag along with her to put what we pick up into. We have been plogging for a few months now, and every time we go out we pick up about two pounds of trash.

Plogging is a great way to help your community get cleaner and less polluted. It makes me so sad to see all of this trash. And if the trash somehow makes its way to the ocean, just one plastic bag could kill a whole bunch of little sea life. Did you know trash can travel up to 2,000 miles in the ocean? Now you know.

Pick up your trash everybody. You could save a bird. You could save a fish. You could save the world.