More than one hundred volunteers show up around the metro for KC Plogtober

KC Plogtober celebrated its second-ever event last weekend with over one hundred “ploggers” turning out at 13 sites across eight municipalities to pick up litter at their favorite parks and trails. “Plogging” is a Swedish term for picking up litter while walking and running on your community’s trails. It’s a way to get exercise, support your public greenspaces and keep your watersheds clean of litter and other contaminants.

Congratulations to Team Clay County (pictured), who brought home the “Top Plogger” award, providing almost half of the total cleanup volunteers! Another noteworthy accomplishment was the team from Raytown, MO, who had the largest single-site turnout on the Rock Island Trail.

Volunteers found aluminum cans, wrappers, styrofoam — and stranger items like an old railroad spike, a car’s keyfob, and a pristine pair of underpants! That’s 100 bags of trash that have been removed from the watershed ahead of this week’s rain, and that much less contamination going to our local waterways. We all live in a watershed, and if it’s on the ground, it’s in our water! Learn more at cleanwaterkcmetro.org.