KC Plogtober event reduces watershed pollution

Oct 24, 2022
| Posted in
delegation from Clay County pose with MARC staff in front of heart sculpture in the MARC office lobby

KC Plogtober celebrated its second-ever event last weekend with over 100 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 go out to Team Clay County, who brought home the "Top Plogger" award, providing almost half of the total cleanup volunteers! Another noteworthy accomplishment was the team from Raytown, Missouri, 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 and a car's keyfob. In total, 100 bags of trash were 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! Visit MARC's Water Quality education website for more ways to reduce waterway pollution.