One community says 'no more litter' and apparently the message is getting across. The annual Fall trash and litter neighborhood collection in Riverview collected the lowest amount of litter gathered in more than 30 years of the bi-annual event.
"It is absolutely a testament to the community that puts forth a positive effort into making its streets and public areas free of trash," says Sharon Hayes, director of the Keep Kingsport Beautiful campaign. "Based on past community collection drives, I expected to see a lot more trash and litter today, discarded paper, liquor bottles, even syringes. We didn't see any of that today. Mainly for me, it's been just cigarette butts."
New Kingsport Mayor Paul Montgomery noticed that, too, as he picked up litter with former Mayor Pat Shull and current alderman and vice mayor Darrell Duncan. "I picked up more cigarette butts than anything else and one empty pop bottle," he said. "But I'm not surprised at the success of keeping the neighborhood free of trash and litter. You can see the pride that people have in the neighborhood with the well-kept lawns."
Normally, the twice-a-year pickup campaigns will collect at least two tons of trash and litter for Kingsport Public Works crews, but this year, the amount was less than a ton.
36 volunteers fanned out on the streets of Riverview and also the Dale-East Sevier-Maple and Oak Street areas. The entire collection process took about an hour.
"We were glad to have the people that gave of their time on a beautiful Saturday morning," said South Central Kingsport Community Development director Johnnie Mae Swagerty. "There was wonderful fellowship and we had a great lunch afterwards. Our next litter collection activity will be in April and we're hoping that the weekend's event will start a trend of getting others involved in keeping their own neighborhoods free from unsightly litter, too."
"I think the trend is there," Mayor Montgomery said. "I don't think it would be difficult to keep it going and growing, since South Central Kingsport does such a good job of promoting and emphasizing its program to local residents."
"We do hope the no-littering trend spreads to other neighborhoods in Kingsport through cleanups," says Hayes. "We'd love for other neighborhoods to "pick up" on it (pardon the pun). If we can share the good news of how beautiful the neighborhoods of Kingsport look free of litter, let it be contagious."
To get information on how to organize litter cleanups in your Kingsport neighborhood, email Hayes at shayes@kingsportchamber.org or call (423) 392-8814.
