Will Ohlig Summer in the City Intern for Communications

By Will Ohlig

Nothing quite compares to the sight of trash in Fort Sanders on a Sunday morning after the Vols beat Florida the night prior.

I have seen it first hand. Now a rising senior at the University of Tennessee, I have worked with Keep Knoxville Beautiful (KKB) through my Fraternity Pi Kappa Phi since I joined in 2022.

During that memorable cleanup, I picked up the trash while my friend Miller held the trash bag in place. Miller and I filled almost 20 bags of trash over our four hours of walking through Fort Sanders. We saw front yards filled with hundreds of empty cans, plus paper plates and food waste that had already begun to clog the storm drains. 

The trash in Fort Sanders flows directly into the Tennessee River through those storm drains and had already begun to do so just a day later. Knowing this, and seeing it firsthand during this cleanup, opened my eyes to what is needed for Knoxville to stay clean. 

The City of Knoxville’s goals for sustainability and a cleaner Knoxville have set the standard for recycling and litter cleanup policies. Groups like Keep Knoxville Beautiful support this mission by working closely with the City to identify litter hot spots in need of cleanup and organizing trash pick-ups in communities throughout Knoxville.


A 2023 contract between the City and KKB, co-signed with Junk Galaxy, ensures KKB access to City public service crews for designated road cleanups and direct funding for anti-littering education.

The City also activated 311 as a tool for KKB to report requests for trash pickup, linking communication between the groups for efficient cleanups.

“We are incredibly grateful to the 311 team for helping us process our requests for bag pickups, litter hot spot complaints, or clarifying questions from the public,” says Keep Knoxville Beautiful Director of Programs Amanda Seale.

Working with Keep Knoxville Beautiful has shown me how important and satisfying a litter cleanup can be. Even with those ever-important litter cleanups, KKB is striving to gain notice for their other initiatives as well.  

“Keep Knoxville Beautiful is most known for its litter pickups, but we do so much more," says City Waste and Resources Manager Makenzie Read, who serves as the current Board Chair of KKB. "There has been a push in recent years toward the beautification side of cleanups, including replacing graffiti with murals on old buildings and beautification landscaping efforts at schools across Knoxville."

Seale says KKB's ultimate mission is to inspire others to create these impacts themselves and sustain them in our community. 

The challenges surrounding litter in Knoxville rely on the impacts of community members to change for the better, says Seale.

“Litter is a prevalent problem here in Knoxville, as it is in many places, and it is not a problem that will go away through the efforts of one person. Litter is reduced through community effort, and it is a wonderful way to meet like-minded people, get outside, and experience the rewarding feeling of making a positive difference.”

Participating in litter cleanups throughout my time in Knoxville have benefited me positively. After the cleanup, the rewarding energy you feel and the enjoyment of embodying the shared community mindset make you want to sign up again.

Katie Melvin is one of KKB’s top volunteers.

“There's always a feeling of pride for me and the other volunteers when we get to see the before and after photos of a cleanup site," Melvin says. "The amount of trash that can be removed during a cleanup is astounding. I think since we all live here we owe it to ourselves and our communities to give back in a small way and make our community better than it was before. When everyone volunteers a little bit, it goes a longer way than you might think.”

The enrichment gained from one of these cleanups is infectious, and the enthusiasm Katie shared with me was inspiring to see. Someone who has worked so many cleanups still feels the same satisfaction that I did after my first few.

It is so easy to become involved with KKB and serve your community in many ways. KKB provides litter cleanup supplies such as litter pickers, safety vests, gloves, trash bags, and road safety signs at no cost to members of the public. Community members are welcome to use these supplies to pick up trash around their community, and they can reserve supplies by reaching out to KKB.

There are also organized cleanups coming up that you should keep on your radar. They are typically held on the third Saturday of the month. The next event is Saturday, Aug. 17, at Seven Islands State Birding Park from 9 a.m. - 12 p.m. Volunteers will be picking up litter from the French Broad River and removing invasive species from the park.

The fourth annual East Knoxville Community Cleanup is Sept. 21, 9 a.m. - 12 p.m. Volunteers will meet at Ashley Nicole Dream Playground in Caswell Park to pick up materials before spreading out into adjacent neighborhoods. 

The City’s plans for a sustainable future fall directly in line with those of Keep Knoxville Beautiful, and as someone who has changed for the better through these cleanups, I encourage anyone to try one just once to see how good you will feel after. The words of KKB volunteers and those who work for KKB themselves are so inspiring to hear.  Seeing piles of trash disappear from the community we all cherish shows the direct impact of a litter cleanup and will be something I never get tired of.