NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — In just one day of cleanup on the Cumberland River, volunteers helped pull more than 1,000 pounds of trash from the water.
A local organization, Tennessee Riverkeeper, led the volunteer cleanup. Organizers said Sunday was the group’s first cleanup of 2025, and they definitely got their hands dirty: removing 17 tires and 24 bags of trash from the Cumberland.
“We try to organize these cleanups about once a month, we try to do about 9 or 10 a year,” explained David Whiteside, the Founder/Executive Director of Tennessee Riverkeeper.
Whiteside founded the organization 15 years ago with the core purpose of preserving the Cumberland and Tennessee River basins. According to Whiteside, their goal is to pull at least 10,000 pounds of waste from the waterways each year.
Fueled mainly by volunteers, the organization has focused on ridding local waterways of plastic waste, all while educating the public on rising pollution across Nashville.
“The development and all the people coming, the tourists, and just so many people coming to live in such a concentrated area is putting a lot of stress on the Cumberland and the tributaries as well,” said Whiteside. “A lot of it is coming from Broadway and the tourists and them just throwing stuff down on Broadway. That washes into the storm drains and ends up washing into the creeks and rivers too. And it’s not so much a visible eye sore [but it’s there].”
Whiteside added that the rising number of homeless encampments along the Cumberland has also polluted the water with trash, although he pointed the blame largely on tourism and a rise in development.
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In line with Nashville’s growth causing issues, Whiteside said Metro must invest more in their sewage infrastructure to combat the excess waste.
“One of the most important lessons of life is to know where your water supply comes from and to not take that for granted,” he said. “If everyone came to these cleanups, our planet would be a lot cleaner, our water would be a lot cleaner.”
Tennessee Riverkeeper is already planning their next cleanup and will need more volunteers to lend a hand. Whiteside encouraged those who would like to help to follow their organization’s social media.
