Paws on pavement: Gangnam's pups turn daily walks into litter patrols

In Gangnam, a district better known for sleek skyscrapers and luxury shopping than street cleanup, local canines are stepping up to tackle litter — one walk at a time.

The Gangnam District Office and the Gangnam Volunteer Center on Tuesday officially launched the Daeng-Daeng Plogging Volunteer Corps, a civic initiative pairing dog owners with their four-legged companions to clean up neighborhood streets.

The concept behind “plogging” — a trend that combines jogging or walking with picking up trash — has been given a distinctly local twist.

Gangnam boasts the highest number of registered pet dogs among all Seoul districts, with nearly 47,000 registered pups.

Recognizing an untapped workforce, district officials decided to turn routine daily walks into community service.

The inaugural cohort features 56 teams comprising 77 owners and 56 enthusiastic dogs.

Through December, these human-canine duos will patrol their neighborhoods at least once a week, collecting stray litter along their routes.

To track their impact, participants post before-and-after photos online, logging their ...