Get plogging, says deputy on jog and tidy scheme
COMBINING jogging with picking up rubbish will help to tidy up the island, a South-East deputy has said, and she is encouraging more islanders to join in.
Lindsey de Sausmarez has been ‘plogging’ around her neighbourhood and has been shocked by how much rubbish she had found along the way.
She said she had always been a keen jogger.
‘When I’m out running, it’s always driven me nuts passing litter and not being able to do anything about it,’ she said.
‘But Michelle [Le Clerc] gave me the perfect bag.’
During her runs she noticed certain trends of rubbish dropped around St Martin’s village.
That has included beer cans, dog poo bags, sweet wrappers, crisp packets, batteries and cigarette butts.
Often she will find clusters of the same items in the same place, possibly showing that the same person is repeatedly dropping items over a period of time.
This week she was so shocked by what she found, she sent out a tweet showing the items she had picked up.
‘We are quite civic-minded and people were quite shocked that other people are dropping litter around,’ she said.
Having islanders pick up rubbish is firmly supported by Andrew Munro.
Recently he registered his charity, the Clean Earth Trust., with the Guernsey Registry.
Pick Up Guernsey is one of its initiatives, which aims to get islanders to help keep the island tidy.
‘The idea is to get people picking up rubbish in their daily lives,’ he said.
‘I think the more we can do to raise awareness of people picking up rubbish, the more we can encourage people to stop dropping it in the first place.’
Deputy de Sausmarez said she thought it was great to get young people involved with tackling the problem too.
n The term plogging first came from Sweden in 2016, from the Swedish words ‘plocka upp’ – meaning pick up. The idea is that jogging helps keep people fit, while crouching and bending to pick up litter also adds different movements to that regime.
