Rubbish gets competitive - 27th October 2023

‘Spogomi’ is a sport with an environmental aim – to pick up rubbish. It began life in Japan in 2008, and the name combines ‘spo’ for sport with ‘gomi hiroi’, which means rubbish collecting.

Sivasit Wanarungson decided to enter this competition in Thailand.

"We are runners, we love running. And Spogomi, Spogomi means sport and 'gomi' means garbage. We love to collect and separate the waste and we love sporting. So I think this activity matches for us."

Spogomi’s a team sport with three people per team. Each team collects rubbish in its own one kilometre area and players have to follow the Spogomi rules. If a player leaves their area, uses transport, runs, picks up bags of rubbish or enters private property, they lose points. Teams can even be removed from the competition.

Players are given one hour to collect rubbish. This is followed by 20 minutes to sort their waste for each recycling bin, such as plastics, paper, glass and cigarette ends. Teams earn points for the weight of the rubbish that they’ve collected and sorted.

The sport even has its own world cup due to its growing popularity, which is being held in Japan in November. The local stages of this international Spogomi competition have already happened in Japan and twenty other countries.

Spogomi’s a fun way of highlighting a global issue. It has a serious message, as world cup organiser Takayasu Udagawa points out.

"We created the Spogomi because the marine litter problem is becoming a serious problem all over the world. The litter is not from the sea but from the land. The trash littered goes into the ocean through the rivers, so we have to pick up the trash."