It’s a cloudy, grey morning in Oxford at 9 a.m. April 26. It’s 49 degrees, but the cold winds make that number shrink to 39. But that doesn’t deter residents from making their way Uptown.
The Farmer’s Market was starting up, just like any other weekend. However, another event was also gearing up, just a short walk away. About 20 people had shown up for Oxford Lane Library’s “Plogging for a Clean Community” event at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Park. Plogging originates from Sweden and it means “picking up litter and jogging.” However, participants were encouraged to go at their own pace.
Scattered across the table are informational papers, gloves, pins and more. Each participant signed up, as an individual or team, filled out a waiver and was given gloves and two trash bags – green for trash, clear for recycling – and papers on the table told them which items went where. Three bins were off to the side, labeled recycling, trash and compost. One participant asked about what he should do with cans that still contained liquid, such as beer cans.
“What if there’s beer?” He asked with a mischievous smile. “What if I drink it?”
“Maybe you sign the waiver twice,” a volunteer joked.
At 9:25 a.m., the race began as attendees dispersed across Oxford. For the next hour, residents returned with several bags of trash, often filled to the brim and sometimes with interesting finds. Alex and Jonah Moreno, a father and son duo, found a broken table, vapes and “feminine products.” Trash bags were weighed, for the team and individual with the most trash earned a prize.
The bins soon proved to be no match for Oxford’s determination, as the recycling bin was quickly filled by Angela Jones, the first resident to return, who found at least 12 pounds of trash. Soon, bags covered the area where the bins were sitting.
Jackie Berberich, a public services librarian at Oxford Lane Library, said she came across “plogging” while looking for Earth-related activities to host on the day of EarthFest. But she also wanted to give residents a chance to improve their city.
“The idea was to give people the opportunity to do something active and make them feel like they’re a part of making our community better environmentally, become more aware of our surroundings and how we treat our city,” Berberich said.
Berberich said not much planning was required to organize the event – she had to acquire a permit for the park and permission from Rebecca Smith, Oxford Lane Library’s branch manager and get the supplies to hand out. She said the event relied on people attending, so she reached out to Miami University organizations, sororities, fraternities and other local places in Oxford.
“I really wanted Miami students involved so that they could feel active as well as create a bigger community,” Berberich said. “I really [wanted] to give the idea to someone to do this on their own time, not just for this event.”
Gretchen Feldkamp, a senior at Miami, weighed in at about 5 pounds in her first bag of trash. Feldkamp attended this event not only to fulfill her service hours for her sorority, Alpha Omicron Pi, but also because she is committed to keeping the town clean.
“I think with being a college town, there’s a lot of trash that gets left around and not put in the right places,” Feldkamp said. “So I think it’s important to help out the environment and community and clean up any trash, cans, all of the above.”
Feldkamp is also on Miami’s track team, so she enjoyed the opportunity to be active while taking care of the environment.
Kelly Poole, who works with adult programs at Butler Tech, came to the event because she was interested in what “plogging” was. She was also inspired by her sister to get more involved with sustainability, who lives in South America and does a lot for the environment.
Poole would encourage other Oxford residents to attend events like this because it was fun and a good workout.
“It’s a way for the community to come together in an easy way for just a couple hours and be able to help in some little way,” Poole said.
Participants had picked up 232 pounds of trash by the end of the two hours. The first-place winners for teams were Rich Moore, Shr-Lin Moore and Vicki Cheng. The first-place winner for individuals was Candace Crist.
Berberich said the impact of Friends of the Oxford Lane Library, an organization dedicated to supporting the library, was felt on this event. It funds a lot of programming and bought the supplies for this event.
“We’re always so grateful for them and I always want to mention them,” Berberich said.
