An environmental nonprofit is making strides in protecting a waterway that stretches into Alabama. Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful is celebrating as successful 2023 with record breaks and new milestones, including 218,729 pounds of trash removed from the Tennessee River. Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful is an affiliate of the Keep America Beautiful organization, the first to focus solely on a river.
With the help of sponsors and volunteers, Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful was able reach the following of milestones in 2023:
- Most volunteers in one year: 994
- Most volunteers at a single cleanup: 172
- Most trash removed at a single cleanup: 31,115 lbs.
- Nonprofit lifetime milestone of 600,000 lbs. of trash removed from the river
- Nonprofit milestone of 210 river miles adopted
- Nonprofit lifetime milestone of plastic recycled from over 500,000 cigarette butts
- Most trash removed at a cleanup organized by an Adopt a River Mile adoptee (stretch of multiple miles): 120,000 lbs. on Fonatna Lake
“We had a lot of milestones in 2023. It's exciting to see all this momentum building as people are getting more excited about protecting the river and more people are stepping up,” said Kathleen Gibi, Executive Director of Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful.
The nonprofit hosts cleanups alongside the Tennessee River in seven states, including Alabama.
“We’ve got to two boats. So, we're going to be doing a lot more traveling and a lot more work in Alabama again. We've really been hitting the Decatur area, Rogersville, Muscle Shoals. [We’re] really trying to hit those areas that have been stressed by natural disaster, whether it be flooding or several of those tornadoes that have come through,” said Gibi.
Along with record breaks and milestones, the nonprofit was also awarded four different state awards for their collaborative work. Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful was named ‘Tennessee Nonprofit Recycler of the Year’ by the Tennessee Recycling Coalition and was also honored with several awards from the Tennessee Deptatment of Transportation
Gibi said that the success brought in during 2023 could not have been reached without the help of volunteers, who make up the majority of the cleanup crew.
“Volunteers are very crucial to our ability to get anything done for this river. Until this year, it was just myself and a seasonal employee. This year, we had our second full-time employee. Obviously, two people can't remove 109,000 pounds of trash each in a year. So, it's really the hands and the hearts of the volunteers [who] come out to help take care of their community and their river.”
For a video recap of Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful’s achievements in 2023, click here. Additionally, to learn more about the organization, to see is impact or to learn how to get involved, visit the Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful Website.
