'Ploggers' keeping China's great outdoors clean, pristine

Social connections

If environmental protection explains why people join these activities, it does not fully explain why so many of them keep coming back.

Along mountain trails, participants often discover something unexpected: community.

At the recent Beijing's Western Hills plogging event, connections happened in unexpected ways.

Tian Tian, a doctor from the nutrition department of Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, encountered a former patient she had not seen in a decade. On another occasion, a young veterinary student mentioned she was looking for an internship during a cleanup activity and was introduced to a clinic owner taking part in the same event.

Chen, who also organizes volunteer cleanups, said such encounters are increasingly common. "Very few people come alone nowadays," she said. "Most are introduced by friends who previously joined our activities."

Liu from Xterra described the phenomenon as a new form of social gathering. "Compared with traditional volunteering, it's more like a social event built around sports and environmental protection," she said. "It addresses two common challenges facing young people today: mental exhaustion and a lack of meaningful social connection."

Participants exercise outdoors, interact with like-minded people and experience tangible accomplishments at the same time.

Xu Gaoyang, a psychotherapist at Beijing Anding Hospital affiliated with Capital Medical University, believes the popularity of plogging reflects how many young Chinese are responding to the pressures of modern urban life.

"The combination of hiking, environmental protection and social interaction is a very healthy response to contemporary stress," Xu said.

One attraction is the low-pressure social environment.

Unlike many social situations, participants do not need to introduce themselves through professional credentials, income levels or social status. Instead, they work toward a common goal from the outset. People who choose to spend their weekends protecting the environment also tend to share similar values, making it easier to build meaningful connections.

More fundamentally, Xu said, plogging offers a sense of meaning in an increasingly uncertain world.

Outdoor cleanups provide a rare opportunity to see immediate results: a trail becomes cleaner, a mountain looks different, and individual effort produces visible change.

"You pick up several bags of trash and instantly see the environment improve," Xu said. "That helps rebuild a sense of personal effectiveness and agency."

At the same time, the activities draw people away from screens and anxieties toward direct experiences in nature. Some participants describe the experience as "returning to the real world".

Along the route of recent plogging event in Beijing's Western Hills, the cleanup efforts often drew spontaneous responses from others in the mountains.

One runner taking part in a nearby trail race stopped and said, "You are doing a great job." Several hikers and visitors also paused to acknowledge the volunteers as they passed through the area.

zhengjinran@chinadaily.com.cn