Mangoes for waste collection: Ploggers Army's ‘sweet' reward on Labour Day

The Hindu

07-05-2025

Mangoes are irresistible, all the more in summer. How about a mango as a reward after a waste collection drive? Wouldn't that taste even sweeter?
This is what G. Nagaraj, known as the 'Plogman' of India, attempted at Jayanagar 9th block on May Day. Founder of Indian Ploggers Army, he organised a waste collection drive where the participants were rewarded sweet and juicy mangoes.
A 'sweet' drive
A group of 31 'ploggers' circled clusters within a radius of 1 km around the Jayanagar 9th Block Park between 8.10 and 9.30 a.m., collecting eight sacks full of waste in the process. With each sack containing 6 to 7 kg of waste, the group collected almost 45 kg of waste in the vicinity.
The group of 31 volunteers, who assisted in picking up waste around the park and its surrounding streets, also included children from around 15 underprivileged families living in the nearby slums.
But why mangoes as reward? To impart the happiness of earning a reward for sweating it out and putting in hard work, Nagaraj says.
Labour day ritual
This isn't the first time Nagaraj and his army have conducted such drives. A traditional Labour Day practice of the team has been to distribute lemon juice to roadside fruit vendors, auto rickshaw drivers and others working daily wage jobs, in a bid to provide respite from the searing summer heat.
Post the COVID-19 induced lockdown, Nagaraj and his team have conducted several such drives across the country, bringing in an element of earning vegetables or fruits after a waste collection drive. Nagaraj notes that he always sought to add a 'seasonal' touch to his plogging drives, further motivating people to join these initiatives.
'After the COVID lockdown, we conducted a tomato plog, rewarding each participant with tomatoes after the drive. Given the summer season, we considered doing a mango plog, and rewarding volunteers with mangoes to mark their achievement,' he says.
Awareness building
'The waste collection drive helped spread awareness on the practices of littering and the types of waste collected,' says Seema Rao, a regular volunteer at the drives.
Noting that such events are important in inculcating civic sense, she further suggests that participating in the plog drives helped build a sense of self-awareness amongst the children.
'The children were eager to get their hands on the mangoes and competed to pick up the biggest mango! Just seeing their eagerness to learn brought a sense of satisfaction to our faces and a major motivation to take part in the waste collection drive,' Rao notes.
Peddina Sripriya, another volunteer who took part in the event, called it an experience filled with enthusiasm, learning, and community spirit. Pointing out that a significant chunk of the waste collected were plastic bottles, she noted how it served as a reminder to rethink one's consumption habits and start to embrace sustainable practices to preserve society.