Mayokun Iyaomolere is the founder of Plogging Nigeria Club, an environmental group that seeks to achieve two aims of attaining physical fitness while caring for the environment. He shared details about how his group does this with PAUL OMOROGBE.
Why the name Plogging?
The word Plogging is a relatively new English word with Swedish origin. It means jogging and picking litters. Our name, Plogging Nigeria Club is inspired by the combined activities of jogging and picking litters as a means to keep fit while keeping the environment clean.
What makes it unique?
Our uniqueness as an organisation lies in the simplicity and fun nature of our activities. We present an enjoyable opportunity for Nigerians of all age and status to help improve the condition of the environment and their bodies simultaneously.
Our Plogging Episodes successfully oscillate between fun and impact-driven exercises with high sense of fulfilment for the volunteers whose commitment to environment sustainability is matched with maintaining a healthy body and soul.
This is demonstrated succinctly in our motto – We Keep Fit to Keep Clean!
Individuals across different age groups and occupational distributions are able to join and support us in a bid to ensure effective collaborative efforts in areas of physical fitness, environmental protection and sustainability.
Our Ploggas (members of the club) cut across students and staff from various departments, faculties and academic background. We also have political leaders, civil servants and private workers as Ploggas.
By participating in plogging activities, members develop the consciousness to respect the environment and nurture it. Ultimately, this helps create a behavioral shift in how people go on to interact with their surroundings particularly how they manage their waste.
When did it start and how?
Sometime in 2016, Plogging was formally initiated in Sweden by Erik Ahlstrom. As an organised activity, it spread to other countries in 2018. Plogging Nigeria Club was launched on June 2nd, 2018 as part of the events to mark the 2018 World Environment Day. Now, the organisation is an officially registered environmental NGO in Nigeria.
What are your activities like and what have you carried out so far?
Our activities include Plogging Episodes which are held fortnightly and are varied with other body exercises other than jogging while picking litters. So far, we have held over 220 episodes recovering more than 10, 000 bags of indiscriminately disposed wastes and recyclables in our places of operation. We organise and collaborate with other organisations for cleanup campaigns.
We have five major campus cleanups under our belt with the foremost being in University of Nigeria Nsukka recording over 500 participants with over 700 bags of wastes cleaned. We commemorate World Cleanup Day events. Last year for #WorldCleanupDay2020, we were involved in 21 cleanups around Nigeria.
Hosted in 13 states, we engaged over 450 volunteers, recovering 600 bags of wastes, spent a cumulative of 45 hours cleaning and covered a distance of 40 kilometers. For this year’s cleanup day slated for September 18, 2021, we are fine tuning plans to up the ante!
Plogging Nigeria through her clubs have recovered over 100, 000 PET bottles, littered in the environment, which have been recycled in working partnerships with local recycling firms. We also organise Upcycling workshops for our members and other enthusiasts on simple processes of converting/repurposing deemed wastes for new and improved use.
YOU SHOULD NOT MISS THESE HEADLINES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
Buhari Urges MTN For Quality Service, Downward Price Review In Cost Of Data, Other Services
President Muhammadu Buhari Friday at State House Abuja urged the MTN Group to make the available top-of-the-range service to its Nigerian subscribers… We started ‘Plogging’ to combine fitness with cleaning the environment We started ‘Plogging’ to combine fitness with cleaning the environment We started ‘Plogging’ to combine fitness with cleaning the environment We started ‘Plogging’ to combine fitness with cleaning the environment.
and then