Paul Waye is already running up his mess, it is called plogging. Dressed in a banana suit, he runs 31 marathons in all provinces of the Netherlands in one month, while he is cleaning litter while running. He runs from Den Bosch to Eindhoven on Saturday.
In front of the monumental town hall of Den Bosch, Paul, in his striking banana suit, is hugged and congratulations by a group of people who follow him online during his journey. It’s Paul’s birthday on Saturday and will be 58. “I am a real old banana!”, He shouts laughing. “I want to run and plogs through all provincial capitals in the Netherlands in one continuous run.”
“If 18 million people pick up something in the Netherlands, it saves 18 million pieces of waste on the street.”
Paul does not run to raise money, but to create consciousness and to inspire people. “I do something crazy that people can look at me. Then I can talk to them and invite them to pick up a bit of junk every day. It is a positive start of your day. Imagine: if 18 million people in the Netherlands do that, it saves 18 million pieces of waste on the street and in the environment. That is my goal, or at least a good start,” says the cheerful Paul.
Paul Waye is a Brit, lives in Haarlem and is a pioneer in the field of plogging: a combination of jogging and cleaning up litter. He is known as the first professional plogger in the Netherlands and has brought together his passion for running and environmental consciousness in a unique lifestyle.
Paul also stands out for his creative outfits, such as a suit made of 1,000 plastic bottles that weighs 32 kilos. With that he rather ran a half marathon to draw attention to plastic pollution.
“If I make it on May 31, I would like a beer!”
During his trip through the center of Den Bosch, ploggers from Veghel also hook. “Plogging makes you happy, because you are on the move and you make the world a little more beautiful,” says one of the two plogs from Veghel.
Jetske Thielen from Vught is a big fan of Paul and would like to take a picture with him in his banana suit. “I think it’s so cool what he is doing and how he draws attention to the problem of litter in a positive way. He knows how to make others really enthusiastic. Because of him, I now run a round every Saturday morning and I pick up clutter,” says Jetske.
In the meantime, Paul walks to a terrace, where he tells a few ladies about his mission. “We are going to do it too!” They call enthusiastically when he runs further. “Sometimes you have to do something crazy and push your limits to achieve something. Almost 1,400 kilometers walk is really the utmost of what I can handle. If I make it on May 31, I would like a beer,” says Paul with a huge laughter.
Hopefully he will get that today, if he also reached Eindhoven after Den Bosch. On Sunday the tour will continue from Eindhoven to Limburg.