Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Today was a very interesting day.  KKB's Tom Salter appeared on The Phil Show on 100.3 Talk Radio with Representative Russell Johnson of Loudon to discuss the proposed Tennessee Bottle Bill.  We had a good discussion and were a number of good phone calls.  Representative Johnson, the sponsor of the bill, made a number of interesting admissions that we had not heard before:

1) The nonprofit organization Scenic Tennessee has been doing litter surveys to prove that bottles and cans make up "most" of the roadside litter.  Rep. Johnson told Tom that the group weighs their litter.  Obviously, if you weigh litter, the glass bottles will be the heaviest thing you pick up besides tires and building materials.  To our knowledge, nobody weighs litter to determine the percentage of any type of material except people trying to argue that bottles and cans make up most of roadside litter.  Local and national studies consistently show from 8% to 28% bottles and cans.  The Scenic Tennessee studies always show more than 50% bottles and cans.  It appears as if Scenic Tennessee is using a methodology that purposely skews their data to support their position.

2) Rep. Johnson said on-the-air that Alcoa Aluminum can't support the bill publicly but they do support it privately.  Since thousands of people were listening to Phil's show I guess Alcoa Aluminum's private support is out now.

3) Rep. Johnson said on-the-air that he thinks the 3-cent fee put on every container will not be passed along to consumers (yeah, right), but that drinks in vending machines may have to increase 10-cents to cover the nickel deposit and to cover the 3-cent fee.

4) Rep. Johnson admitted that if bottles used for on-premise consumption are damaged (like if the label is peeled off or if cans are crushed), the vendor - like Neyland Stadium or bars will not be able to turn the bottles in at a redemption center and they will be stuck with the 5-cent fee.

5) Rep. Johnson said they bottle bill does not cover liquor bottles because they don't want to have another lobbying group opposing the bill.

6) Rep. Johnson admitted that the bottle bill will not fix the state's litter problem.

Stay tuned.

- posted by KKB staff at 8:30 PM

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

This was a big day for the future of litter prevention in Tennessee.  A committee made up of members of the Keep Tennessee Beautiful Advisory Council, the TDOT Highway Beautification Staff and the Keep Tennessee Beautiful staff listened to three presentations by PR firms in order to select the next company that will produce a comprehensive litter-prevention public awareness campaign.  A company was selected but we can't say anything until the University of Memphis purchasing department notifies the winner.  We are all very excited about the prospects of this new campaign.

- posted by KKB staff at 10:15 PM

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Today, Maggie Kracke (below left) of KKB and AmeriCorps met with Rodney Rockett (below right) of Knox County Solid Waste to make plans for the annual Tree-Cycling event.  It is set for Saturday, January 7th, 2006.  Citizens can bring their trees to any of the three locations starting December 26.  Click here for detailed information. 

- posted by KKB staff at 11:45 AM

Saturday, November 19, 2005

Tom made a presentation to the Center for Neighborhood Development leadership class at The Literacy Imperative on Harriet Tubman Street.  The topic was general litter prevention and cleanup issues with an emphasis on how litter cleanup efforts can be used to build a stronger neighborhood organization.

- posted by KKB staff at 11:30 AM

Friday, November 18, 2005

The day began with a visit from Leslie Ham and Josh Fulton, two UT students looking for a non-profit internship for the spring semester.  Looks like they may come on board in January.  We also provided cleanup supplies for the Center for Neighborhood Development and Old North Knoxville.

- posted by KKB staff at 2:25 PM

Thursday, November 17, 2005

In the morning KKB president Cassandra McGee and Tom Salter met with Sam Anderson with the City of Knoxville to talk about the City setting up a formal Adopt-A-Block program.  This program would be similar to the Knox County Adopt-A-Road program and the State Adopt-A-Highway program.  Youth groups that agree to adopt City neighborhoods will be eligible for the "Cash For Trash" grants.

In the afternoon, Jack Dennis and Maggie Kracke did a Litter Relay activity for the environmental club at Adrian Burnett elementary school.  With the Litter Relay, teams of students must select a piece of "trash" (clean trash) and then pass it down a row of students using a litter picking device.  At the end of the line a student must decide if the material should be recycled, reused, composted or sent to the landfill.  At the end of the activity KKB staff reviews the student's choices and a lot of good discussion is generated about recycling.

- posted by KKB staff at 4:15 PM

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Our First Impressions Campaign committee met today at Riverside to plan what to we need to do to implement a regional campaign to convince people that they should clean up their properties to always make a good first impression on tourists, business prospects, customers and other visitors.  Committee members include Ray Clift, Darrin Rhines, Terry Faulkner and Gary Drinnen.  The first steps will be to gather information on which streets and roads in Knoxville and Knox County are considered portals or gateways to the community.  We will look to MPC and TDOT for this information. 

- posted by KKB staff at  4:30 PM

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

KKB's Jack Dennis and Tom Salter helped Sarah Surak staff a booth at the UTK University Center to promote America Recycles Day.  Sarah gave out information and answered questions about recycling on campus and Tom and Jack gave away Don't Throw Down stickers.  Below: Jack with Sarah.

- posted by KKB staff at 2:30 PM

Monday, November 14, 2005

Today was the first day at KKB for Maggie Kracke of AmeriCorps.  Maggie will be working with us through the summer and will have a variety of duties.  Welcome Maggie!

- posted by KKB staff at 9:45 AM

Sunday, November 13, 2005

In this unusual Sunday posting we want to share with you a letter to the Editor of the News Sentinel supporting Tom's letter on October 30th on the composition of litter and a Zits cartoon featuring litter as its subject:

- posted by KKB staff at 10:50 AM

Thursday, November 10, 2005

This morning at 7:30 a.m., Tom presented information on litter studies to a group of grocers and soft drink company representatives at the Rose Center in Morristown to discuss the proposed Tennessee Bottle Bill.  There was intense interest in getting accurate information about what types of materials make up the litter stream in our communities.  KKB presented information from 4 studies it conducted between 2001 and 2005 that showed that bottles and cans ranged from a high of 37% to a low of 14% of the roadside litter in Knox County.  KKB also presented data it acquired from the Tennessee Izaak Walton League that showed a weekly cleanup of Parkside Drive at Turkey Creek over 20 weeks resulted in about 18% bottles and cans.

Board members Mary Lou Horner, Doug McGill, Sam Maynard and staff Tom Salter and Jack Dennis had lunch at Calhoun's today to plan KKB's Christmas Party.  Right now it looks like we will have our annual holiday party at The Women's Basketball Hall of Fame on December 15th from 5:00 to 7:30.  We will invite all of our friends and if you want to make sure you get invited drop us an email at keepknox@discoveret.org. 

- posted by KKB staff at 2:15 PM

Tuesday, November 8, 2005

Today, Tom met with John Harris of CAC AmeriCorps about getting two AmeriCorps members for KKB's 2006-2007 fiscal year.  We also talked about a possibility that has developed to get one member this year from another organization that has changed its program and will no longer need the worker.  That would be great. 

Late in the day we dropped off litter cleanup supplies to Kim Fowler at the Center for Neighborhood Development for two neighborhoods.

- posted by KKB staff at 6:30 PM

Monday, November 7, 2005

The Ijams Earth Flag AmeriCorps Team met at SP Recycling this morning to plan a big recycling promotion for January-March 2006.  Tom Salter, KKB director and board member Sarah Surak sat in on the meeting.  Sarah has a new ring.  What's that all about Sarah?  Also pictured below is KKB's good friend Becky Ford of SP Recycling.

- posted by KKB staff at 10:30 AM

Friday, November 4, 2004

A new show opened today at The Emporium.  It showcases work of members of the East Tennessee Woodcrafters.  Very nice.  You better come see this show.

- posted by KKB staff at 11:15 AM

Thursday, November 3, 2005

Today we had the regular monthly board meeting of Keep Knoxville Beautiful at the Candy Factory.  In addition to today being Sam Maynard's birthday, we enjoyed a presentation by representatives of the Metropolitan Planning Commission and the Knoxville Tree Board on the need for county-wide efforts to conserve and plant trees.  The group is specifically asking KKB's board to endorse the formation of a joint City-County Tree Board.



Special Note:  KKB's newest program coordinator Jack Dennis attended the board meeting today but is not pictured above.  We'll get some pics of Jack real soon.

- posted by KKB staff at 2:35 PM

Tuesday, November 1, 2005

You can't get there from here is no joke at the intersection of Gay Street and Jackson Avenue today as workers closed the Gay Street viaduct for about a year.  A new bridge will be built to replace a nearly century-old structure that is falling apart and too low for some types of train cars that need to pass through downtown Knoxville.  Parking near The Emporium  building (home of KKB's offices) has become quite difficult.