Competitive Litter-Picking: The SpoGomi World Cup

SpoGomi is family fun. (© Nippon.com)

Young teens are especially good at picking up litter. (© Nippon.com)

Trash sorting. Smokers often discard cigarette butts in beverage cans or bottles. (© Nippon.com)

The weigh-in: Members are tense and excited about learning their result. (© Nippon.com)

The Saitama round teams pose with their litter haul. The three-member winning team sits at front row center. (© Nippon.com)

Official Spogomi tongs, ready for action, are safe and easy to use for everyone from kids to seniors. (© Nippon.com)

From left: Sasakawa Yōhei, chairman, Nippon Foundation; professional climber and World Cup ambassador Nonaka Mihō; swimmer Matsuda Takeshi; former AKB/SKE48 singing group member Yamauchi Suzuran; and Yanai Kōji, director of Fast Retailing Co., which donated funding for the tournament. (© Nippon.com)

The Shimane elimination round kicks off at Kirara Beach. Which of the teams will make it to the finals in Tokyo? (© Nippon.com)

Even little kids pitch in to help. (© Nippon.com)

Teams fan out on the beach to pick up litter. (© Nippon.com)

This all-girl team displays its haul. (© Nippon.com)

Carrying litter under the blazing sun is hard work. (© Nippon.com)

The clean-up drive collected over 200 kilograms of trash. (© Nippon.com)

The winning team members. Picking up a huge number of cigarette butts boosted their score to 4,936.2 points. (© Nippon.com)

A Vietnamese team sorting trash as they consult the rule book. (Courtesy of the SpoGomi World Cup Operating Committee)

In Vietnam, many young people participated in the preliminary rounds. A total of 40 teams collected 72.6 kilograms of trash. (Courtesy of the SpoGomi World Cup Operating Committee)

The winning Indonesian team, employees of a south Jakarta “trash bank,” collected 132.6 kilograms of litter. (Courtesy of the SpoGomi World Cup Operating Committee)

A group of Japanese-Brazilians, who make it a habit to pick up litter regularly, participated in the preliminary round in Brazil. They notched up a respectable record, collecting 179.2 kilograms of trash. (Courtesy of the SpoGomi World Cup Operating Committee)

Members of the winning Brazilian team exult in victory. (Courtesy of the SpoGomi World Cup Operating Committee)

Picking up litter is healthy exercise. (© Nippon.com)

SpoGomi’s ultimate goal is to clean up the planet so well that litter pick-up tournaments are no longer needed. (© Nippon.com)