The competition aims to raise awareness about the amount of pollution flowing into our oceans.
ADVERTISEMENTBritain won the inaugural litter picking World Cup in Tokyo on Wednesday. Participants from 21 countries, such as Japan, the United States, Australia and France, gathered in the Japanese capital to compete for the title by picking up the most litter within 90 minutes.
The aim of the ‘Spogomi World Cup’ is to raise awareness on environmental protection, and in particular reducing plastic waste flowing into the ocean.
More than 8.3 billion tonnes of plastic have been produced since the 1950s, and much of it has ended up decomposing into micro and nanoplastics, infiltrating water streams, soil, and eventually, our oceans.
What are the rules of the litter picking World Cup?
Each team was made up of three players who were awarded points based on the amount and type of trash they picked up, over two sessions at a designated area. Running and collecting rubbish from private properties were not allowed.
“Sometimes it was really hard because there wasn't really that much trash, but that's when we have to look a little bit deeper like in the bushes, or just really focus on the cigarette butts on the floor,” says Beatrice Hernandez, a player from Team USA.
Players were then given 20 minutes after each rubbish picking session to sort litter correctly into different categories – burnable waste, recyclable plastic bottles, metal cans, cigarette butts and others.
How did the litter picking World Cup start?
SpoGomi, a combination of the Japanese words for sport and rubbish, was an event invented in Japan in 2008 to encourage people to pick up litter in public spaces. It gained popularity across the country and about 230 contests have been held in Japan this year, according to the competition organiser.
Team UK were announced as the winners at the end of the competition, after they earned 9,046.1 points for collecting 57.27 kg of rubbish. For team captain Sarah Parry, trash-picking is a serious sport.
“A lot of the other teams maybe were more ecological, and less sport, and we’re probably the opposite, but we've taken so much away about how much we need to clean up our oceans and reduce litter,” says the 28-year-old marathon runner.
According to the organiser, the next World Cup is expected to be held in 2025 with participants from more countries set to gather again in Tokyo.
