A Week in Review (October 14th-20th)

By Karsen Gentry

It seems fall has finally made its presence known here in East Tennessee. We here at Keep Blount Beautiful have been taking full advantage of the cooler temperatures by leading field trips to the landfill, planting trees, and cleaning up Pistol Creek.

The week got off to a good start with two field trips to the landfill with the Second Grade class from Carpenters Elementary. These classes learned all about how Blount County manages its waste. We started our tour by learning how tires can be recycled into new products. Along the way, we also learned about e-waste and why we recycle our old electronics. Finally, we ended our tour by visiting a new cell in the landfill where our waste gets buried by bulldozers.

After completing the tour, the second graders made their way over to our Eco-Center to eat lunch and learn more about how we dispose of our waste. The students were encouraged to bring a lunch that produced little to no waste. After they were finished eating they also had the opportunity to sort what little waste they had into bins for compost, recycling, and trash. Students then got to practice what they had learned in a team relay race where they had to sort everyday waste into compost, recycling, and trash. We hope that everyone had as much fun as we did and it is clear that the second graders at Carpenters Elementary will be great stewards for our environment!

After our eventful mornings with the students of Carpenter Elementary, Keep Blount Beautiful made it out to William Blount High School to dig holes to prepare for the school’s planting event the following week. This year Keep Blount Beautiful was awarded $5,000 dollars by Keep America Beautiful and the UPS Foundation to give kids in Blount County an opportunity to make their community greener and help them make a connection with their environment.  

Rounding out the week on Saturday, the folks at KBB partnered with the City of Alcoa, Blount County Soil Conservation District, and the Little River Watershed Association to clean up Pistol Creek. Our group of over 21 volunteers was able to collect 61 bags of trash and 20 tires! We’d like to thank everyone who came out and helped us this weekend. Pistol Creek is much cleaner thanks to you! 

We’d like to thank everyone who made it to our events this past week! Be sure to check out our events page on our website or Facebook if you would like to get involved. We would love to see you there!