The group of volunteers from the cleanup on Friday, June 25, pose with one of the trash piles they made at three cleanup sites.
A total of 25 volunteers helped to remove 5,000 lbs. of trash over the weekend in Soddy Daisy, Tenn. in a two-part cleanup series that Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful hosted, called ‘Chickamauga Lake Cleanup Weekend presented by iSustain.’
The cleanup held on the evening of Friday, June 25, resulted in 2,104 lbs. removed by 15 volunteers, and the cleanup held on Saturday, June 26, yielded 2,841 lbs. removed by ten volunteers. Items removed included:
Kathleen Gibi, KTNRB Executive Director, gets ready to load Saturday’s trash collection onto the boat trailer so that the trash can then be tossed into a dumpster.
· 132 bags of trash
· 13 tires
· 3.5 steel drums
· 80 square feet of Styrofoam
· 12’ x 12’ fiberglass boat top
· Computer monitor
· 215 lbs. of carpet
· 55-gallon plastic barrel
· Two 30-gallon plastic barrels
“This weekend was a really fun one—a true community effort with tons of energy and excitement, all spurred by iSustain’s ask to hold a cleanup here,” said Kathleen Gibi, KTNRB Executive Director. “It’s great to see local river champions inspiring others in their community to care for this precious river of ours.”
The cleanup series was made possible thanks to a $2,500 sponsorship from iSustain Recycling, a national sustainability services company that processes over 151 million pounds of recyclable products each year.
Dawn Huber, owner of iSustain, and Mark Huber, Vice President, each joined both cleanups with staff from their company and even family. The couple has since adopted Tennessee River Mile 489 on Chickamauga Lake through KTNRB’s Adopt a River Mile program.
Dawn Huber, owner of iSustain and Mark Huber, VP of Business Development for iSustain, pick up litter on a shoreline of Chickamauga Lake on the Tennessee River.
“What an absolute blast making an impact on recovering trash and waste plastics from our beautiful river, said Mark Huber, Vice President of Business Development for iSustain and KTNRB Board Member. “Our goal shared with KTNRB is to inspire people of all ages to change their behavior to reduce, reuse, and recycle, which ultimately eliminates opportunity for litter.
We are so thankful to be a part of this multi-state effort to preserve our beautiful waterways for now and for future generations.”
The event series was also held in partnership with the Chickamauga Fly, Bait & Casting Club (a participant in KTNRB’s Adopt a River Mile program) and the Soddy Daisy Beautification and Improvement Project. Both partners assisted with local volunteer recruitment and participated in the cleanups.
After each cleanup, the KTNRB boat was filled up with the trash collected by volunteers and then dumped into a 40-yard roll-off dumpster provided by Priority Waste Services of Soddy Daisy. The dumpster was full by the end of the weekend series on Saturday.
For a list of upcoming cleanups with Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful, visit www.KeepTNRiverBeautiful.org/upcomingcleanups.
Volunteers from the cleanup on Saturday, June 26, leave behind a trash pile at the first of four sites cleaned that day.