Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful
Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful is a 501c3 nonprofit and is the first Keep America Beautiful affiliate in the nation to focus solely on a river. Its mission is to rally communities along the Tennessee River and its tributaries to preserve, improve and protect the river for generations to come. To date, over 5,000 volunteers have helped the organization to remove over 950,000 lbs. of trash along the 652-mile Tennessee River and its tributaries that reach into seven states. By 2025, the organization hopes to surpass the milestone of 1,000,000 lbs. of trash removed since putting their first boat in the water in 2019.
Cleanups
Volunteer river cleanups are the heart of Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful. Our mission is to educate and inspire people to take action to create a clean, healthy, beautiful Tennessee River for generations to come. River cleanups are critical to educating and inspiring communities within the 7-state Tennessee River watershed as we aim to show our volunteers the impact litter has on our waterways and what they can do to make a difference. Our volunteer cleanups are held along the 652-mile Tennessee River and its tributaries. The area spans into the seven states of TN, AL, MS, KY, GA, NC, and VA.
At Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful, we truly believe one person can make a difference! Since 2019, we have had over 5,000 volunteers on our cleanups and removed over 950,000 lbs. of trash.
Fleet
Our two 26-foot work boats are modeled after the boats used by our partners at the national nonprofit, Living Lands & Waters. Our boats make it possible for us to deliver volunteers to shorelines that are not accessible to your every day boats and act as trash barges to haul litter at the end of volunteer cleanups. The fleet also includes two Ford F-250s that allow us to travel within the 7-state Tennessee River Watershed - hosting volunteer cleanups along the 652-mile Tennessee River and its tributaries in N, AL, MS, KY, GA, NC, and VA.
Keep the
Tennessee River Beautiful Programs
Stewardship Programs
You can take part in what we see as the ultimate ‘end game’ of river cleanup work. All you need to do is pick out a river mile and hold two cleanups a year. In return, we’ll ship you free cleanup supplies, KTnRB swag, and even a sign to post with your group’s name!
Save our rivers from litter before it gets washed into our waterways! This is a great program to make a 5-10 minute commitment once a month cleaning a storm drain. No matter where it is in your community, it will wind up in our waterways eventually.
Adoptees will donate a fee to adopt juvenile mussels that will be placed in silos similar to those pictured here and receive updates on their mussel.
Make a pledge to stop the litter before it even becomes litter. Select one single-use item to give up for one year, and learn how much you are saving that could potentially wind up in our waterways.
Education & Awareness Programs
TENNESSEE RIVER MUSSEL MOVEMENT INITIATIVE
We’re proud to collaborate with the University of Tennessee’s Dept. of Earth, Environment, & Planetary Sciences to highlight the importance of the river mussel in our waterways. The Mussel Movement Initiative will do this through an Adopt a Mussel program, a Mussel Fest, a mussel inventory identified at KTnRB river cleanups, and more.
RAPPELLING FOR THE RIVERS
August 2, 2025 - For the first time ever, Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful is hosting a fundraiser campaign in collaboration with Over the Edge and the Park Vista Hotel in Gatlinburg, Tenn. Participants will have the opportunity to rappel down the side of the hotel, which is situated 1,000 feet above Gatlinburg and with the Great Smoky Mountains as a backdrop.
TENNESSEE RIVER RIPPLE EFFECT AWARDS
The 3rd annual Tennessee River Ripple Effect Awards, presented by Yamaha RightWaters, highlights river champions in each state along the Tennessee River.
EDUCATION LECTURES
With a new Education & Outreach Coordinator position, we at KTnRB are excited to soon be hosting education lectures at schools and to other organized youth group settings.
Stewardship Programs
CIGARETTE RECEPTACLES & RECYCLING
Protect our waterways from the No. 1 littered item in the world, not to mention the chemical and plastic pollution presented by littered cigarettes. We offer free shipping for the cigarette plastic to be shipped for recycling.
ELECTRIC LITTER SKIMMER DEVICES
This is our first endeavor that allows us to actually mitigate microplastics and Styrofoam bits directly out of the water. These devices work 24/7 to skim litter, micro-pieces, gases, and oils directly from the water.
As we work to remove litter from our shorelines, the fact remains that 80% of the litter in our waterways was originally littered on land. TDOT and Keep Tennessee Beautiful are supporting our pilot project effort to not only catch litter before it enters the river through our storm drain system, but analyze the litter trends in an effort to stop litter in the future!
Crew
At Keep the Tennessee River Beautiful, our mission is to educate and inspire people to take action to create a clean, healthy, beautiful Tennessee River for generations to come. We could not achieve our mission without our crew. In the case of our nonprofit, every staff member is a part of the crew and programming with our full-time employees running programs and captaining our boats at river cleanups. This means that the majority of staff salaries are used for programming rather than administration.
Organization activity
Organization campaigns
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