His efforts won him the Points of Light Award from 10 Downing Street, which honours people making a difference in their communities. Gurav was recognised for his 250 running challenges across Bristol to tackle litter and bringing together over 140 volunteers to clear over 3,750 kilograms of litter
Highlights/ India/ flights
Lakshmi Sharan
Vivek Gurav, originally from Pune, was inspired by the Swedish concept of “plogging” – which combines “jogga” (jogging) with “plocka upp” (a pick-up) – to encourage people who use their local streets the most to take pride in keeping them clean, according to a report from reported tribuneindia.
In India, he set up a plogging community known as “Pune Ploggers” back in 2018, with over 10,000 members who have collected over 1 million kilograms of rubbish and wanted to continue the trend when he took up his scholarship position at Bristol University in September last year. Since then, his university says he has covered over 420 miles on 120 plogging “missions” joined by volunteers from 180 countries and is now taking the drive to 30 UK cities.
“I have only been plogging in Bristol but I kept getting asked by people in Manchester, Leeds, Derby, to come plogging there,” said Gurav. “So, I decided to do a plogging challenge across 30 UK cities. Ultimately, I want to set-up a UK-wide plogging community like I did back in India. So, if I can go out plogging across the UK, orientate people, give them a blueprint, then they can start their own groups,” he added.
- In India, he set up a plogging community known as “Pune Ploggers” back in 2018
- The community with over 10,000 members has collected over 1 million kilograms of rubbish
- He continued the trend when he took up his scholarship position at Bristol University
- Since then, his university says he has covered over 420 miles on 120 plogging “missions”
- Volunteers from 180 countries joined him and is now taking the drive to 30 UK cities
The former app developer hopes to be joined by fellow ploggers, environmentalists and keen runners as he visits each city via public transport. His plogging across Derby, Nottingham, Leeds, Sheffield, Manchester, Liverpool, Leicester, Birmingham and Worcester is being tracked across his social media.
Earlier this year, his efforts won him the Points of Light Award from 10 Downing Street, which honours people making a difference in their communities. Gurav was recognised for his 250 running challenges across Bristol to tackle litter and bringing together over 140 volunteers to clear over 3,750 kilograms of litter, reported tribuneindia.
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