One day a year Australians turn out in droves to pick up rubbish in waterways, tracks, parks and gardens, beaches and so forth. It’s an event known simply as Clean Up Australia. Years ago it spawned an international version, Clean Up The World, which we noted here. The other day Samuel Huber of Milwaukee appraised us of his own personal campaign along similar lines. Except with a twist. Labelling it Eco-Running, Samuel is hoping to encourage joggers and runners to ‘combine their passion with a purpose.’ Put simply while out running collect the rubbish, the garbage, the trash that you find along the pathways, roads and trails you run. On the surface it seems both a noble and a silly idea. It is a worthy thing to be removing pollutants from the wider environment sure, but why pick up other peoples trash, they’re just gonna thrown more, aren’t they? Well, oddly studies have shown that by cleaning up an area you remove the incentive to contribute to its mess. A council in Sydney works on this premise by not providing rubbish bins in public parks. If you generate the rubbish you should take some responsibility for it. And for the most part it works - the parks seem pretty clean. We trust Samuel has similar luck, with his campaign. PIck up his enthusiasm on his blog at ::Eco-Runner.

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