Friday, April 26, 2007

Just about everyone attended Mayor Haslam's annual budget address today. It was held at beautiful Caswell Park.  Mayor Haslam did a great job and used great props. The pie charts were great. The budget breakdowns were informative.

- posted by KKB Staff at 3:15 PM

Thursday, April 25, 2007

We won today. Whatever the reason, the recycling worked tonight at Sundown in the City's 3rd concert in the 2007 series.  Threatening weather cut the crowd compared to the first two weeks, but the waste was way down.  After the concert, trash cans were not overflowing, there was very little trash on the ground and the ClearStreams were full.  In fact, there was so little trash on the ground that the City crew did not use its vacuum truck to suck cups and other junk off the ground.  The just did a little pick up.  We don't have weights of what was in the garbage cans yet, but the weight in the recycle bins was over 300 pounds (340 last week and 100 the first week) and nothing in the vacuum truck.  I'll post a little comparison chart in a few days when I get the weight reports.  We think the better results are a combination of 3 weeks in a row of recycle bins in place, re-positioning of bins and signs each week and the quality of Scott Miller's fans.  Scott is a local musician with many fans and we feel they have a better attitude toward taking care of Knoxville than those who attended the first two concerts but maybe live in some of the outlying counties.  There were anecdotal reports that parking lots were full of cars from all over the area win past weeks but this was mostly a local crowd.  We'll see what happens next week.  Here are some pictures from the event.

Jill with one of our volunteers prep the ClearStreams and put up signs.


Assembling the ClearStreams.


Stephanie setting up more containers and an old Don't Throw Down sticker.


The vac truck we didn't use and more proof of where beer cups come from.


Still a big crowd but smaller than the first two weeks.


Great bands.


Unretouched photos of recycle bin, garbage can and ground after concert.

- posted by KKB Staff at 11:45 PM

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

The Sundown Zero Waste Committee met today at the Knox County Engineering Conference Room.  There are still big challenges to getting it right at Sundown.  The first week the public recycled 100 pounds of beer cups and Advance Polymer Recycling got another 1,700 pounds from the City vacuum truck.  The second week the public did 340 pounds (on their own) and APR got about another 700 pounds from the vacuum truck.  It is generally believed the crowd was larger and the amount of cups on the ground looked about the same so the discrepancy in cup weight in the vacuum truck is a problem.  We hope to get another weight after this Thursday to compare to one or the other.  We may ignore the high or low if it is way different than future weights.  Bottom line: we are going to continue to increase the amounts recycled by the public by bin placement, messaging, signage, etc.  We are also planning a second round of discussions with food vendors. There is still a substantial amount of foil and styro getting into the trash and we know at least two food vendors who are not with the program. This prevents us from doing the kind of composting we did at EarthFest.  Speaking of EarthFest...

We have the numbers for EarthFest 2007 and it is good news:

- posted by KKB Staff at 5:15 PM

Sunday, April 22, 2007

It's the real Earth Day today and the traditional morning after EarthFest when we go back to the site to see what kind of mess we really made.  We found a very, very clean site with few loose ends on waste disposal.  There were two trash cans at World's Fair Park South Lawn that we did not properly secure during the event and we had to dump those out and put the material in the compost and recycle bins.  That was NOT pleasant. One volunteer picked up a small amount of litter in about 15 minutes.  We picked up cardboard left in several spots on the site.  Volunteers also stacked tables and chairs.  Here are some pictures from the final cleanup.

Below: we set up a little assembly line to recycle and compost the remaining trash.


Below: just a few volunteers stacked all the tables and chairs.


Below: putting the last of the paper and plastic in the recycle trailer.


Below: the single trash bag contained mostly items brought in from off-site.


Below: compostable bags filled with compostable material, John Homa with the single bag of trash. We compared the bag to a 20 lb. bag of ice and estimated the trash at approximately 25 pounds.


Below: the morning after looks real good.


Many thanks to all the food vendors, exhibitors, our volunteers and the public for helping make the zero-waste aspect of EarthFest a success.  If you have any suggestions on further improvements in waste reduction please let us know.  Right now, we are going to ban several items from distribution by vendors and exhibitors including (but not limited to): individually wrapped candies, individually wrapped promotions items (wrappers can be removed prior to setting items out for people to take), energy bar-type foods packaged in foil/plastic composite material.  This stuff is problematic to recycle and although we did not get a lot of it, there was enough to notice.  We are also going to have more recycling/composting near the food areas and larger signage on the recycling/composting areas.

- posted by KKB Staff at 10:30 AM

Saturday, April 21, 2007

Although Earth Day is tomorrow all around the world, it is EarthFest today in Knoxville and conditions could not be better.  Clear skies, low humidity, temps in the high 70's predicted.  More than 80 exhibitors, 8 food vendors, 5 bands and a bunch of sponsors had a super time. Excellent, family friendly entertainment and educational opportunities from 11 to 7 at the World's Fair Park South Lawn. Keep Knoxville Beautiful had a double 20 foot tent with judging for our poster contest and face painting by our Youth Advisory Board.  We were also responsible for recycling and composting on the site. KPD and World's Fair Park officials estimated the crowd at 13,000 to 15,000 people. (If you weren't there you actually missed something special). Here are some pics.

Below: recycling and composting near the food tent.


Below: Optimist Club of West Knoxville runs one our busiest recycling sites.


Below: another shot of composting and recycling.


Below: two more of our five recycling centers on site.


Below: closeup of recycled beverage containers and Tom Salter of KKB with the single bag of trash at the end of the day that could not be composted or recycled.


This proves last year was not a one-shot deal on waste reduction. We don't have the weights back yet, but we will beat last year's 150 pounds of waste not recycled or composted.  Here are some more pics of people having fun:

Below: climbing wall and crowd shot.


Below: poster contest judging.


Below: KKB's tents.


Below: lines for food and two guests from the dog event next door - guess what we found in one of the trash cans?


Below: fun in the kid's area.


Below: the public voted on their favorite Drink It, Then, Sink It posters.


Below: Nug Jug, one of 5 great bands performing at EarthFest.


Below: setting up and jumping in the air - both fun!


Finally, here are some shots of people we ran into at EarthFest.  Maybe you know some of them.

- posted by KKB Staff at 10:00 PM

Friday, April 20, 2007

It is EarthFest Eve.  The weather forecast is glorious - much anticipated because the last two years were cold, rainy, windy and some say we had some spitting snow last year (but I never saw it).  The traditional activity for the day is setting up tables, chairs and putting up banners for all the booths.  Here are some pics of the setup day:

Below: tables and chairs haven't been set up in the center area.


Below: John and Cat review the site map and task checklist.


Below: tables getting set up, lunch donated by Ham 'n' Goodies for the volunteers.


Below: composite of the site with all tents, tables and chairs ready.

- posted by KKB Staff at 11:45 PM

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Sundown in the City, a Zero Waste Event, Part 2.  It was the second week of Sundown Zero Waste.  We made several changes - improved signage, different locations for beer cup recycling containers and...oh yes!...we enlarged the holes in the tops of the recycle bins.  If you tuned in last week you know the holes were too small for the beer cups and, well, you can imagine that we lost a lot of material.  Well, this week was much better and we recovered an estimated 5-10 times more in the recycle bins.  I don't have the weight results yet but will post that soon.  Here are the pics:

Below: John Homa and Cat Wilt.


Below: John, inspecting a trash can (we are all trash nerds), a perfect ClearStream® of beer cups and our new signs.


Below: Sundown fans are good recyclers (we'll see).


Below: public must dispose of all beverage containers entering or leaving the site, mixed, contaminated waste (at least one person is NOT thinking about recycling).


Below: another shot of the new signs and an educational pic of where beer cups really come from.


Below: during and after.




Below: beverage containers from the recycle bins - this is 5 to 10 times better than week 1, don't have the weight yet.

- posted by KKB Staff at 11:45 PM

KKB gave a speech in the morning to the Chapman Highway Garden Club - overview of year-round programming.

- posted by KKB Staff at 11:30 AM

Saturday, April 14, 2007

In our first entry in more than 10 years, Keep Knoxville Beautiful, with excellent help from Jimy White, won the Pride of Knoxville Award in the Dogwood Arts Festival Parade.  Here are some detail pictures of the float and some parade pics:

- posted by KKB Staff at 1:45 PM

Friday, April 13, 2007

Today was Build a Dogwood Arts Festival Parade Float Day for KKB.  Jimy White of White Lawn Care volunteered to work with KKB this year to build a parade float.  The float will be half litter, half natural beauty and parade-goers will be challenged that it is their choice: Litter or Natural Beauty.  Joining Jimy were board members Sharon Webb, Maxine Gunter and Darrin Rhines.  In addition to landscaping the float, Jimy built two water features.  The trees were donated by KUB, we borrowed the river rock and bought the flowers with our Sam's Gift Card we won last year.  It's really cool.  Many thanks for Bruce Weuthrich, director of Knox County Engineering for letting us build the float in the Knox County Engineering salt shed.  It was a perfect location, close to downtown so we don't wreck the float getting it to the parade and covered in case there is really bad weather before we get there.  Here are some shots of the float construction job:

- posted by KKB Staff at 2:30 PM

Thursday, April 12, 2007

Congratulations to AC Entertainment on the successful kickoff of the 2007 Sundown in the City concert series.  As promised, Keep Knoxville Beautiful, the City of Knoxville, Advanced Polymer Recycling (APR), Knox County, the University of Tennessee and SP Recycling are doing their best to make Sundown in the City 2007 a Zero Waste Event.  Zero Waste is a goal to recycle or compost all the waste produced at the event - we don't want to send anything to the landfill.  We had dozens of volunteers and some special equipment.  Here are some images from the event:

Below: volunteer meeting, typical beer truck and the first trash.


Below: Tom Salter, Lt. Hubbs, Mayor Haslam and John Homa interviewed by WBIR.


Below: the concert crowd (pretty impressive!)


Below: it's getting darker..................................................it's dark.


Below: post-event recycle bins, trash cans, etc.




Below: trash on the ground, city worker leaf-blowing trash into piles and bags of recycled cups


Official weight results from the City of Knoxville Solid Waste Department: weight of trash from conventional trash cans - 4,000 pounds even, bags of recyclables - 100 pounds, contents of vacuum truck after blowing litter into piles - 1,900 pounds.  The contents of the vacuum truck were taken to APR.  APR recycled another 1,800 pounds.  They brought back 100 pounds to the City Transfer Station.  Bottom line: 6,700 pounds of waste produced, 1,900 recycled, 4,800 pounds to the landfill and nothing composted.

For next week look for the following: 1) improved signage for all beer cup recycling, 2) larger openings in the beverage container recycling bins, 3) beverage container bins and all transit points (entrances and exits where people are required to dispose of their cups), 4) a lid on the compost bin with a sign for "food waste only", 5) stage announcements and more.

The partners have been asked by the city to reduce Sundown waste by half.  We have 11 more weeks to perfect the model. If you want to help call the office at 521-6957.  Volunteers are needed between 3 and 5 to set up the recycle bins and between 10 and 10:30 to take the bins down.

- posted by KKB Staff at 11:45 PM

They say no good deed goes unpunished (who are "they" anyway?).  Today, Jack Neely and Matt Edens, two regular contributors to Metro Pulse blasted Keep Knoxville Beautiful for participating in the recent graffiti abatement project in downtown Knoxville.  Neely asserted that a downtown "Free Wall" was "the victim of an anti-graffiti sweep sponsored by Keep Knoxville Beautiful."  Edens suggested that KKB should have saved the Free Wall artwork and turned the project into a fundraiser.  Both writers assume that KKB had more control over the project than we did have and implied that we led the effort. I talked with Jack Neely about KKB's role in the project and he didn't have any excuse for implying that we somehow singled out the Free Wall for a paint over.  I don't know where Edens got his information because he didn't talk to anyone at KKB.  Anyway, here is who did what on the project:

Knoxville Police Department

• arrested the two graffiti vandals "caught in the act"

• investigated locations in the downtown area tagged by those two individuals

• talked to downtown property owners to get permission to paint over or remove graffiti, tags, etc. (the IRS controls the building with the Free Wall - the agent in charge of the building gave permission to KPD for the graffiti removal)

• asked Keep Knoxville Beautiful to recruit volunteers for the project

• contacted a group of KPD volunteers to ask them to volunteer for the project

• committed $500 cash to purchase painting supplies

• purchased supplies from Graning Paint

• supplied two officers and three rookies the day of the event to supervised volunteers

• determined which walls would be targeted for paint over the day of the event

• assigned volunteers to as many as nine different locations in the downtown area to paint over graffiti

District Attorney

• charged the two arrested with multiple misdemeanor and felony counts of vandalism

City of Knoxville

• held a press conference to announce the charges against the two arrested for vandalism

• supplied paint for the project from the Household Hazardous Waste collection center

• supplied a truck that KPD used to move supplies among the various sites

Keep Knoxville Beautiful

• recruited volunteers from Pricewaterhouse Coopers accounting firm who were looking for a regional community service day for their employees

• provided coffee, bottled water and gloves to the graffiti abatement volunteers

• took pictures of the volunteers painting over the graffiti

That being said, Keep Knoxville Beautiful has an anti-graffiti position.  You can learn more about graffiti at www.GraffitiHurts.org.  If an organization asks us to recruit volunteers for a project within the scope of our mission, we will probably do it.  Do we speak out in favor or graffiti removal, prosecution of litter bugs and tree planting - yes!  Was the graffiti abatement project a result of our anti-graffiti "position"?  Possibly, but not entirely.  Prior to the removal of the graffiti the city received a significant number of complaints from downtown residents and business owners about our graffiti "problem".  I personally think complaints from taxpayers and property owners has a bigger impact on action than an "official position on an issue" by a non-profit organization.

- posted by Tom Salter at 11:30 AM

Friday, April 6, 2007

After the arrest of the individuals charged with graffiti vandalism, Knoxville Police Department contacted Keep Knoxville Beautiful about doing a graffiti abatement project on some of the tagged buildings in the downtown area.  Over a two-week period, KPD contacted a number of property owners to obtain written permission to remove or paint over the graffiti.  During that time, KKB recruited about 50 volunteers from Pricewaterhouse Coopers company who were planning a regional community service day in Knoxville.  Today, volunteers from PWC gathered in downtown Knoxville to paint over graffiti on at least 9 locations.  Here are some images from the project.  KPD invested $500 to support the effort and Graning Paint discounted rollers, brushes, roller pans and other supplies.  We have purposely chosen to not show any full images of the graffiti.











- posted by KKB Staff at 3:15 PM

Thursday, April 5, 2007

Today, the Knoxville Police Department and Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam announced the indictment of two individuals charged with multiple counts of misdemeanor and felony vandalism for graffiti in the downtown area.  A number of downtown residents and business owners attended the press conference on State Street near Summit Hill Drive near several buildings with significant amounts of graffiti. Keep Knoxville Beautiful applauds this development and urges all property owners who get tagged to remove the graffiti as soon as possible.  In accordance with practices recommended by Keep America Beautiful, KKB will not be displaying full images of any of the graffiti on this website.  To learn more about graffiti visit the Keep America Beautiful website Graffiti Hurts!



- posted by KKB Staff at 6:30 PM