Plogga / Plogging (Stockholm-originated)
Swedish movement (plocka upp + jogga). Pick up litter while jogging. Now a globally networked grassroots community with 20,000+ daily participants in 100+ countries. Studied as a behaviour-change intervention combining exercise and environmental stewardship.
Local Plogga chapters and World Plogging Championship (Italy) rank teams from different cities/neighborhoods by weight of litter collected per unit time + distance covered. Chapter leaderboards (e.g, Plogga Stockholm vs Plogga Gothenburg) drive identity-based competition.
Each plog is run as a group. Teammates split bags, one runs ahead spotting, another carries weight; accountability-buddy structure documented as the key adherence mechanic. Group plogs explicitly designed around 'who collects the most unique items', i.e, cooperative-competitive within the team.
Non-app, low-tech but globally scaled example of city-vs-city competition with team-mate cooperation inside each plog. Confirms BelongHub mechanic works without sensors/tokens. Pure social structure is enough. Swedish origin and IOC-affiliated World Plogging Championship give it credibility.
Others in the same family
aruku& / ALKOO by NAVITIME (Japan municipal walking)
aruku& (ONE COMPATH) and ALKOO by NAVITIME are gamified pedometer apps that municipalities adopt to run citizen step competitions. Walkers gain points, redeem for local prizes/discounts. Miyagi prefecture's 'Health Walk' explicitly ranks municipalities (市町村) against each other.
BetterPoints
Council-funded mobile app that auto-detects walking, cycling, bus, train, car-share trips and converts to BetterPoints redeemable at local retailers. Councils customize challenges per borough.
Beat the Street
Town-wide gamified active travel intervention created by GP Dr William Bird (Intelligent Health Ltd) where residents tap RFID 'Beat Boxes' on lampposts while walking/cycling/wheeling between them within an hour windows to score team points. Runs as 6-week community-wide tournaments. 1.9M+ participants across UK and abroad. Multiple peer-reviewed pilot evaluations (Coombes & Jones 2018, Harris et al. 2023 in Health Promotion Practice).
Defi Sante (Capsana, Quebec)
Quebec-wide 6-week challenge each spring run by Capsana, asking citizens to commit to '5 portions of fruit/veg, 30 min activity, 2 hours quality sleep daily.' Municipalities sign up to mobilize residents, and the campaign awards 'Municipalites Championnes' status to top-performing towns and pays out ~$20k in prizes for citizen events. 21 municipalities crowned champions in a single recent edition.
Munzee Clan Wars
Players capture physical and virtual 'munzees' at real-world locations. Each month, clans (player teams) battle in Clan Wars with rotating monthly requirements (capture types, regions, point totals). Levels 1-6 with reserved tiers for premium players.
Trash Hero World (chapter league)
Swiss-registered nonprofit where each town runs a chapter (resident-led volunteer team) doing weekly cleanups, supported by a global mentor team. Chapters share branding, handbook, methodology.