‘Ploggers’ aim to keep Lexington beautiful

Saturday morning, about 20 people in the community gathered at John's Run/Walk shop to help collect trash in the neighborhood.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ) – What is ‘plogging?’ It’s the act of jogging or walking in your community and picking up trash along the way.

Saturday, about 20 people in Lexington started at John’s Run/Walk Shop, grabbed a trash bag and gloves, and headed out for a brisk jog, or leisurely walk, around downtown Lexington neighborhoods.

Matthew Southward, a plogger, says it feels good to do something positive for his community.

“I think about when I’m going to drive down this area and think about ‘oh yeah, this looks a little bit better.'” said Southward.

The ploggers collected 101 pounds even of trash in the area. According to John’s Run/Walk Shop General Manager and Keep Lexington Beautiful board member Riley Marshall, while Lexington’s litter issue isn’t as bad as some cities, there is always room for improvement.

“It’s definitely something we’re trying to tackle…it’s definitely out there. Comparatively to other cities, I think we’re pretty good, but there’s always room for improvement, right?” said Marshall.

Ploggers say they found lots of disposable face masks and bottles, but they also found some unexpected items: one plogger found a couch cushion.

“[We found] many liquor bottles, many masks in this pandemic time, and a diagram of an ear,” said Southward.

According to Keep Lexington Beautiful board member and plogger Rachel Elam, she found more trash than she thought she would.

“I went down James C Boutique and I went through some of the neighborhoods over on the left side of Richmond Road and there was a lot more trash than I thought there would be,” said Elam.

Keep Lexington Beautiful hosted plogging events before COVID-19, but since the pandemic, it hasn’t been able to host any until now. Moving forward, Marshall says Keep Lexington Beautiful is planning to host plogging events at various locations in Lexington.

Marshall says he hopes plogging continues to grow in the community.

“It’s getting a lot of participation and as we continue to do them, we’ll get more traction and get more people out and get the word out and get more people plogging,” said Marshall.

Matthew Southward won first prize for the largest bag of trash collected.