Plogging started in Sweden in 2016 as a way for people to pick up litter and get exercise while doing it, and now that trend has made its way to the City of Trees.
Boise Nice organized the first event here in the Treasure Valley as volunteers cleaned up parks, trails and other areas in Boise.
"Let’s go pick up litter, that doesn’t sound like a lot of fun but plugging that sounds like a blast," said Rourke O'Brien of Boise Nice. "It’s kind of a name the will hopefully keep people in the mood to pick up litter before it gets piled up.
Boise Nice scattered volunteers across six different locations which included Esther Simplot Park, Ann Morrison Park and Kathryn Albertson Park to name a few.
We caught up with some students from Boise High who were picking up garbage on 8th Street in the Hulls Gulch area.
"I love getting outdoors, I always want to go on hikes and just be outside," said Mica Nienstedt. "Seeing trash kind of deters from the nature and the beauty of Boise."
Nienstedt is part of the Boise High Earth Club and they've designated Eighth Street as their highway to pick up litter, Mica has done it several times before and she spent her Saturday cleaning up this area on the day after Earth Day.
“We always try to do it around Earth Day just because it is a great way to get involved, get outside and appreciate the Earth that we have," said Nienstedt. "It's good for your soul."
It was the first time the Boise High Earth club worked with Boise Nice which had around 100 people spread across Boise and many of them met up to celebrate their hard work by joining up at the Green Acres Food Truck Park as Boise had its first official day of plogging.
"We want to get the word plogging into the Boise vocabulary so people say that is part of living here," said O'Rourke. "It’s not just something you do on a day, it’s part of why we live here and part of what you do when you live here.”
O'rouke told us he had several volunteers ask if they could participate by cleaning up a specific trail or park they frequent and this is just fine with this local non-profit.
