Joggers in Suffolk can help make the city a cleaner place by taking just one extra step towards “plogging.”

Plogging combines jogging with picking up litter. The name is a combination of “jogging” and the Swedish “plocka upp,” or “pick up” in English. Ploggers started organizing in Sweden in 2016 and have spread the word on social media, with runners picking it up around the world.

Keep America Beautiful supports plogging, which made its way to the United States in 2018, according to kab.org.

In Suffolk, for instance, you have ploggers like Amanda Shuler. The 36-year-old Keep Suffolk Beautiful volunteer read an article about plogging a few months ago and started bringing a plastic grocery bag to pick up trash during her runs.

Keep Suffolk Beautiful posted some of Shuler’s photos from an early-July run on the Suffolk Seaboard Coastline Trail. She filled up her plastic bag with garbage — including a pair of discarded black insoles — as she ran from Shoulders Hill Road to the Driver trailhead.

“I started volunteering with Keep Suffolk Beautiful, because I love nature and the outdoors,” Shuler wrote in an email. “That’s what helped me become more aware of just how much trash is out there. It makes me feel good to know that I’m doing my part to help the community and the environment.

“I’d love to spread awareness of these issues, so more people can get involved to have a much bigger impact.”

Keep America Beautiful adopted plogging because it combines healthy living with less litter, more recycling and more beautiful communities.

The wide range of motions used while plogging make for a more extensive workout than just jogging, according to kab.org, and the frequent stops and starts to pick up litter are akin to interval training.

It’s also great for amateur runners because it encourages frequent breaks — ones where they can still help make a difference. The same goes for dog walkers, hikers and any others that can bring a bag to their outdoor activity, according to Wayne Jones of Keep Suffolk Beautiful.

“Joggers are health conscious people, so why not extend that healthy outlook to the health of our environment?” Jones wrote in an email. “If every jogger took a bag with them, it would be a great way to help keep our city a cleaner, greener place to live, work and play, plus hopefully it will inspire others to do their part too.”

Ploggers in Suffolk can send their cleanup pictures to Keep Suffolk Beautiful via email at littercontrol@suffolkva.us, or by tagging Keep Suffolk Beautiful in their Facebook and Instagram posts.