Nonprofit group Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful this past weekend removed about 6,500 pounds of trash from the Chickamauga Lake in Soddy-Daisy, according to a news release.
Seventeen volunteers helped remove the waste during a two-part cleanup series June 10-11 called the “Chickamauga Lake Cleanup Weekend presented by iSustain.”
Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful reported the removal of the following items over the weekend:
* 142 bags of trash.
* 13 tires.
* Three steel drums.
* 359 square feet of Styrofoam.
* 130 pounds of scrap metal.
* 86 pounds of plastic.
* Two 55-gallon plastic barrels.
* 60 pounds of fire hose.
After each cleanup, the Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful boat was filled up with the collected trash, which was then dumped into a roll-off dumpster provided by Priority Waste Services of Soddy-Daisy. The dumpster was packed to the brim by the end of the weekend series Saturday. The group has now removed approximately 85,000 pounds of trash from Tennessee River areas so far this year, the release states.
The cleanup series was made possible by a $5,000 sponsorship from iSustain Recycling, a national sustainability services company that processes over 182 million pounds of recyclable products each year. Combined with the first cleanup series on Chickamauga Lake that iSustain sponsored in 2021, the company has directly supported the removal of about 11,000 pounds of trash at four river cleanups, according to the release.
The event series was also held in partnership with Keep Soddy Daisy Beautiful and the Chickamauga Fly, Bait & Casting Club, a participant in Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful Adopt a River Mile program. Both partners helped recruit local volunteers and participated in the cleanups.
Dawn Huber, owner of iSustain, and Mark Huber, iSustain vice president and Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful board member, joined both cleanups with staff from their company and family. The couple has also adopted Tennessee River Mile 489 on Chickamauga Lake through Keep the Tennessee’s Adopt a River Mile program.
“So excited to continue to support this effort to bring focus to, educate and have ‘boots’ on the ground cleaning our beautiful river,” Mark Huber said in the release. “Our team loves supporting this initiative as it is a natural extension of our company’s effort to improve our impact on the environment. Together with KTNRB, we want to inspire people of all ages to change their behavior to reduce, reuse and recycle, which ultimately eliminates litter in our environment.”
Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful works to rally communities along the Tennessee River and its tributaries to preserve, improve and protect the river. To date, 2,676 volunteers have helped the organization to remove about 400,000 pounds of trash along the 652-mile Tennessee River and its tributaries that reach into seven states, the release states.
Residents can find a list of upcoming Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful cleanups at keeptnriverbeautiful.org/upcomingcleanups.
– Compiled by Kim Sebring