The World Championship of running and collecting litter concluded today in Bergamo with the Urban Plogging race, following the Trail Plogging competition held on Saturday in Gandino. The new Trail Plogging world champions are Serbian Milos Stanojević and Piedmont’s Donatella Boglione, who had already won in the 2022 edition. In the Urban Plogging race, the winners were Swedish Robert Svensson and Piedmont’s Elena Canuto.
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On Saturday, September 28, and Sunday, September 29, the 2024 World Plogging Championship took place. Athletes from 13 different nations ran along the Val Gandino trails and the streets of Bergamo, cleaning up one of the most beautiful areas of Lombardy from litter found along the way. For the first time in the history of this sporting event, which is now in its fourth edition, there were two competitions: the Urban Plogging competition, hosted by the Orobic city, debuted alongside the traditional Trail Plogging race hosted by Gandino. At the end of the Urban Plogging race, with which the event concluded, the awards ceremony for the new plogging world champions was held at the Daste venue in Bergamo. The athletes’ performances were evaluated based on three parameters: distance covered, elevation gain (valid only for the Trail Plogging race), and the quality and quantity of litter collected, measured based on the CO2 equivalent not emitted into the atmosphere. A well-tested algorithm added up all the data, assigning each plogger a score that determined the final ranking of the 2024 World Plogging Championship.
TRAIL PLOGGING – GANDINO 2024
Among the 80 qualified athletes who competed on the Val Gandino trails, Serbia and Italy proved to be the strongest nations in the 2024 World Plogging Championship. Among the men, the highest score was achieved by Serbian Milos Stanojević, who was crowned the new Trail Plogging World Champion with 211,436 points. Second place went to fellow Serbian Slobodan Smiljanić with 153,626 points, followed by Pietro Olocco with 128,778 points. Among the women, Donatella Boglione from Piedmont won the title of Trail Plogging World Champion with 122,803 points, having also claimed victory in the 2022 edition. The other two spots on the podium went to Serbian Katarina Kuzman with 94,955 points and Maria Grazia Celi with 83,315 points.
Special awards were also given, including the prize for collecting the largest quantity of WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment), which went to Serbian Natalija Čacarević, while Matilde Gerardi received the prize for collecting the most batteries. These materials, when dispersed in nature, are some of the most polluting and harmful to the environment.
URBAN PLOGGING – BERGAMO 2024
In Bergamo, at the debut edition of the Urban Plogging race, which saw 40 ploggers participating, the first Urban Plogging World Champion was Robert Svensson (53,406 points). The Swede shared the podium with Greek Daniel Angelis (44,181 points) and Renato Zanelli (39,585 points). Elena Canuto from Piedmont, already a winner of the Trail Plogging event in 2021 and 2023, was crowned the first Urban Plogging World Champion with an impressive 100,200 points. She shared the joy with Spanish Verónica Tellez (20,709 points) and French Mathilde Peresson (19,826 points).
THE FIGURES OF THE WORLD PLOGGING CHAMPIONSHIP 2024
Overall, the athletes collected approximately 1,289 kg of litter: 926 kg in the Trail Plogging race in Val Gandino and 363 kg in the Urban Plogging race in Bergamo. Of these, about 850 kg, or 66% of the total, were correctly sorted and sent for recycling, a process through which nearly 686,000 grams of CO2 were prevented from being emitted into the atmosphere. This significant environmental result was made possible by the extraordinary athletic performances of more than 80 athletes from all over the world. On average, 22 kg of litter were collected per kilometer run, and the participants covered over 2,000 km of trails and roads together.
The World Plogging Championship is organized by the International Plogging Committee, composed of AICA – International Environmental Communication Association, ERICA soc. coop., ACEA Pinerolese Industriale, Erik Ahlström – Plogga, Carlo Degiovanni – Podistica Valle Infernotto, and Sandro Fioravanti – RAI Sport.
With the patronage of MASE (Ministry of Environment and Energy Security), Province of Bergamo, Rai for Sustainability, Le Cinque Terre of Val Gandino Seriana and Scalve, Comunità Montana Valle Seriana, and GAL Presolana and Bergamaschi Lakes, along with the sponsorship and contribution of Municipality of Gandino and Municipality of Bergamo.
Main Sponsor: SEA Ambiente Edilizia with Verzeroli Shop.
Gold Sponsor: Fondazione Cariplo.
Partner Sponsors: Vietti Montello, RICREA, Scarpa, PEFC.
Technical Partners: Tranvie Elettriche Bergamasche (TEB), Radici Due Tipografia, WeDoSport, Wikiloc, Centro di Coordinamento RAEE, Centro di Coordinamento Nazionale Pile e Accumulatori, Montecolino, Arriva, Poliplast, Aprica.
Local Partners: Farmacia di Gandino, Ottica Rottigni, Orafo Mauro, Bar Lù, Comunità Magda, Safitex, CERESS with Fondazione Flander Nord BIM Oglio, Panificio Persico, La Spinata, Conad di Leffe.
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Luca Vallati – luca.vallati@ldlcometa.it | 375 7750032