Team U.K. Wins Inaugural Litter-Picking SpoGomi World Cup, Host Japan Finishes Second (2)

Winning the first-ever Spo-Gomi World Cup in Tokyo on November 22, team captain Ms. Sarah Parry of The North Will Rise Again from the United Kingdom said: “We had never heard of SpoGomi but we love sport and it’s given us an amazing opportunity to learn so much about Japan, Japanese culture and also the main point, which is the environment, and how we can clean up more to protect the oceans.”

She said they wanted to bring SpoGomi back to the U.K. a bit more and that it would be great to see more people playing. “We only had one (qualifying) round in the U.K. but maybe we could have (one) in Scotland, England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Wales and then we could have more local competitions.”

Ms. Parry decided to form a team and participate because her brother was a member of Brazil’s team, and she had an interest in Japan. She saw her brother for the first time in two years at the competition.

Team leader Ms. Mariko Tsunamoto of the runners-up Smile Story of Japan said: “We were in the first place after the morning competition, but struggled during the afternoon because we could not find as much trash as we had expected. The British team was stronger. It’s a bit disappointing after our planning and training.”

She added, however, that they were glad to have been able to participate together with teams from other countries “who share our feelings about the Earth.”

I told the event participants: “As you may be well aware, close to 80% of marine litter is generated on land. Once litter is released into rivers or the ocean, recovery is extremely challenging.”

“By merging trash and sports, everyone can participate and enjoy. I would like to see this sport, born here in Japan, spread throughout the world,” I added.

Nippon Foundation Executive Director Mitsuyuki Unno commented at the closing ceremony: “Our aim is for a society in which trash collection and SpoGomi will no longer be needed, with no more trash coming from cities and oceans. This is a difficult challenge, but together with the 1,764 teams from around the world that participated (in the qualifying rounds), this is the future we hope to achieve.”

The 21 countries which took part in the SpoGomi World Cup 2023 were Australia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Morocco, Pakistan, the Philippines, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States of America and Vietnam.

Together, they collected 548.37 kilograms of trash from the Tokyo streets during the competition.

The Nippon Foundation aims to hold a second SpoGomi World Cup in 2025 with more participants from more countries.

The top three teams in the SpoGomi World Cup on November 22:

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