Janneke is on the move. The streets stay clean!

Janneke Verboom lives with her boyfriend and two children in Apeldoorn and works for Waterschap Vallei en Veluwe. In her free time, she enjoys photography, yoga, pilates, and walking. During her walks, she became increasingly aware of litter, Janneke explains. “We walk a lot, in the forest, but also around the neighborhood. We often thought, wow, there’s a lot of trash everywhere. We should really bring a grabber and a bag to clean it up sometime. Last year, we went to the Zero-Waste festival and visited the Heel Apeldoorn Rein booth. There, we got two grabbers and bags, and I started picking up litter during our walks, sometimes with the kids.”

Fit & tidy

When Janneke started picking up litter during her walks, she also learned about a group of ploggers. “The word plogging is a combination of jogging and the Swedish word ‘plocka,’ which means to collect. You go for a run and pick up litter along the way. The combination of being active and doing something useful sounded good to me. I contacted Zero Waste Apeldoorn and signed up. Now, I plog every second Sunday of the month. We plog in different city areas and look for places where not much litter is picked up. Each time, we cover between 5 to 8 km. This sounds like a lot, but we don’t run continuously. Sometimes, there’s a lot of litter, and you spend time picking it up. It’s nice that we consider each other’s pace and you can slow down if needed.”

Plogging is effective and fun!

Cleaning up someone else’s mess, is that fun? “Absolutely,” Janneke says enthusiastically. “First, it’s satisfying to see the immediate results of our efforts. You can clearly see the difference before and after our plogging. I hope our plogging raises awareness so that less litter is thrown away. Besides the usefulness of cleaning up, plogging is very enjoyable. I get to chat with a nice group, be outside, and stay active. Sometimes we start at someone’s house and end with coffee and tea. In December, we always do a plogging round in Christmas outfits around Hoog Soeren and finish at the pancake house. Another fun aspect of our plogging rounds is that we occasionally find small treasures among the litter. For instance, I found a nice coffee cup that I now use.”

Second Sunday of the month, a regular calendar event

When Janneke was asked to share her story about her volunteer work, she was surprised. “For me, this doesn’t feel like volunteer work; I just enjoy doing it. Plogging has become a routine and is on the calendar for every second Sunday of the month. It’s nice to have this regular event because I rarely find time to plog in between due to daily busy schedules. This fixed moment each month is a great anchor and only takes me about two hours each time.”

Raising awareness about litter

The plogging group regularly receives reactions and is noticed in Apeldoorn. “During our monthly plogging, we often get thumbs-up, thank-yous, and compliments about the good work we’re doing. People are curious and want to know why we do it and which organization we’re from. This is a great opportunity to talk about Zero Waste Apeldoorn and inspire others. I even inspired my neighbor. He saw me picking up litter and got enthusiastic, so now he also regularly takes a grabber and a bag when he walks his dog.”

Interested in plogging or plandelen? See what you can do at Zero Waste Apeldoorn: https://www.apeldoornpaktaan.nl/o/Zero-Waste-Apeldoorn/activiteiten