Plogging Agency

Here in New Zealand, I feel like my plogging is making a sustainable difference. Even in the urban areas, it seems that I’m collecting litter faster than it’s being littered. Along the walking trails, this is even more so. I recently plogged trails around Whakapapa and only found a handful of rubbish.

It’s harder to feel this way in Australia. Plog an urban area one day and you’ll be able to fill a couple of buckets the next day. Even hiking trails are often so littered that it’s untenable for a solo plogger to keep them clean. I’m having to travel further and further from Aussie’s civilisation to regain that feeling that I’m making a sustainable difference when I plog.

I suspect that this is due to increasing population density. If there’s only one person littering in a square kilometre, then one person can compensate. Once the density goes up, so does the number of people littering.

Research backs this up. Studies have shown a strong link between population density and littering rates. One paper published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology found that areas with higher foot traffic tend to have more litter, not only because of the volume of people but because visible litter triggers more littering behaviour. It’s a feedback loop. Psychologists call it “social norm theory”: if people see rubbish, they unconsciously feel permission to add to it.

This puts ploggers in a peculiar position. We’re not just removing litter; we’re trying to reset the norms. A visibly clean trail subtly says, “This is cared for. Respect it.” But that quiet message gets drowned out when the scale becomes too large. It’s like trying to mop the floor while the tap is still running.

That’s why feeling like you’re making a sustainable difference matters. It creates what I think of as plogging agency: that sense of individual effectiveness that fuels the will to keep going. Without it, the work can start to feel like a symbolic gesture rather than a transformative one. That’s how I feel when I’m plogging Australian urban areas.

In New Zealand, I still have that sense of agency. It’s not just the lower population; it’s the public mindset. There’s a cultural pride in keeping the environment pristine, something that’s woven into the national identity. Litter still appears, but there’s a shared expectation that it shouldn’t. In contrast, many Australian urban environments have become places where litter is tolerated, even expected.

The good news? Agency can be built. Community clean-ups, council support, signage, bins, and (most importantly) visibility. When people see someone picking up rubbish, it challenges the passive norm and creates a new active one. One plogger can start a ripple. Enough ripples become a current. Rubbish Club Australia is creating a current!

And sometimes, that’s all we need, a little push, perhaps a little company, to believe that our small actions aren’t futile.