Useful activity: garbage collection competitions are held in Japan (7 photos + 1 video)

Japan holds annual competitions to help the entire planet. This is SpoGomi - a competition in which teams collect garbage for a certain time and in a certain area. The Japanese are great again!





SpoGomi is a unique competition in Japan that was launched in 2008 as a motivation for garbage collection. The name comes from the words "sport" and "gomi": the latter means "garbage" in Japanese. The goal of the competition is to help the environment, which suffers from waste, and combat the climate crisis. According to SpoGomi organizers, about 80 percent of ocean trash comes from land, and trash collection is the “last line of defense” to prevent major pollution.



The sport is now so popular that competitions are held all over the world, including the first SpoGomi World Cup, which took place in Japan in November 2023. Representatives from 20 countries and all prefectures of Japan took part in it, and the British team took first place. There are many rules in competition. Teams consist of three to five people who must collect as much garbage as possible in a certain area and within a certain time.





Most often, an hour is allotted for collecting garbage, and another 20 minutes for sorting it. Some types of waste can be particularly hazardous to the environment and may be more difficult to detect - teams receive more points for these types of waste. The most points (100) can be obtained for collecting cigarette butts. Other rules prevent teams from collecting trash from street bins. You should also not collect large items. The use of transport during waste collection is discouraged: since the project supports environmental improvement, participants are asked to collect waste on foot.









Here's how the competition works: