On Saturday Aug. 24, 81 “ploggers” participated in Kansas City’s first plogging event. Plogging is a combination of jogging and picking up litter, a practice that has become popular as concern spreads about litter washing into storm sewers, rivers and streams.

The inaugural Plog-a-thon, sponsored by MARC’s Water Quality Public Education Committee with support from partners Run 816 and the KC Marathon, netted 283 pounds of litter along a three-mile course that wound through Westport, Mill Creek Park, the Plaza, Brush Creek and Main Street in Kansas City, Missouri.