Upper Tennessee River Roundtable

11/02/2026

The annual Clinch Environmental Education Symposium is this Saturday. This is a free event with lots of great speakers. If you would like to attend, just sent an email to address in the flyer.

10/31/2026

Time to start getting ready for America Recycles Day!! Two weeks from today. Please bring gently used shoes for our Keep Southwest Virginia Beautiful program.

♻️ WE’RE NOT DONE YET! SAVE THE DATE! ♻️

We just wrapped up one great event, but there’s no rest for the sustainability-minded! 🌎💚 We’re already gearing up for the annual AMERICA RECYCLES DAY!

📅 Date: November 14, 2026
⏰ Time: 9am - noon
📍 Location: Abingdon, Virginia Police Department Parking Lot (425 W. Main Street)

🗑️ FREE RECYCLING! We’ll be accepting:
🔹 Electronic waste (e-waste)
🔹 Document shredding
🔹 #1, #2 and #5 plastics
🔹 Paper
🔹 Metal
🔹 Aluminum cans
⚠️ Please note: Household hazardous materials will NOT be accepted.

💚 LET’S ALSO GIVE BACK TO OUR COMMUNITY! 💚

This year, we're collecting supplies to support Feeding Southwest Virginia, Keep Southwest Virginia Beautiful, Washington County Virginia Animal Shelter. You can help by starting to gather donations now!

🥫 Nonperishable food
👟 Gently used shoes
🐾 Pet supplies, including:
• Pet food and treats
• Toys, blankets and towels
• Bleach and Dawn dish detergent
• Cat litter
• Pet carriers
• Gently used pet beds

♻️ Clear out the clutter. Keep useful items out of the landfill. Help our neighbors and their pets. It's a win for our community and our planet! 🌎❤️

Town of Abingdon, Virginia

10/29/2026

Stream cleanup volunteers carried not only trash bags, litter grabbers, tongs, and buckets, but also data cards to track each item they picked up on Sunday at the Muster Grounds in Abingdon. Clean Virginia Waterways provided the data cards to the Roundtable for the event, which was part of the International Coastal Cleanup.

The Roundtable will return the completed data cards to Clean Virginia Waterways so the litter can be analyzed along with the results from many other cleanups. Clean Virginia Waterways also provided the buckets, eco-friendly trash bags, tons, and gloves for children and adults. Sustain Abingdon provided funds for pizza and event T-shirts.

When compiling all the data from Sunday's stream cleanup, the Roundtable make a list of the top 10 littered items, something that Clean Virginia Waterways does for all cleanups in Virginia.

The top 10 littered items found on Sunday included:
204 Plastic beverage bottles
116 Tiny plastic pieces less than 2.5 cm
88 Aluminum beverage cans
68 Food wrappers
56 Plastic grocery bags
49 Other plastic waste
48 Plastic cups, plates
46 Glass beverage bottles
38 Foam cups, plates
28 Paper bags

Many thanks to the 29 volunteers who spent their Sunday afternoon with us improving the water quality of Wolf Creek. Thanks to Sustain Abingdon and Clean Virginia Waterways for supporting this annual event!

10/28/2026

Water Wizard Week went really well woth wonderful helpers from Richlands High School yesterday and from Tazewell High School today. Many thanks to our helpers!! Fifth graders enjoyed our watershed pollution station!
Thanks to Elizabeth Bennett for including us and for organizing such a great education event.
Special thanks to EnviroScape for creating such a lovely watershed model, which we use extensively in our education and outreach program.

10/27/2026

Ready for Water Wizard Week in Tazewell! Our station is the EnviroScape watershed model to teach about pollution and pollution prevention.

10/27/2026

♻️ WE’RE NOT DONE YET! SAVE THE DATE! ♻️

We just wrapped up one great event, but there’s no rest for the sustainability-minded! 🌎💚 We’re already gearing up for the annual AMERICA RECYCLES DAY!

📅 Date: November 14, 2026
⏰ Time: 9am - noon
📍 Location: Abingdon, Virginia Police Department Parking Lot (425 W. Main Street)

🗑️ FREE RECYCLING! We’ll be accepting:
🔹 Electronic waste (e-waste)
🔹 Document shredding
🔹 #1, #2 and #5 plastics
🔹 Paper
🔹 Metal
🔹 Aluminum cans
⚠️ Please note: Household hazardous materials will NOT be accepted.

💚 LET’S ALSO GIVE BACK TO OUR COMMUNITY! 💚

This year, we're collecting supplies to support Feeding Southwest Virginia, Keep Southwest Virginia Beautiful, Washington County Virginia Animal Shelter. You can help by starting to gather donations now!

🥫 Nonperishable food
👟 Gently used shoes
🐾 Pet supplies, including:
• Pet food and treats
• Toys, blankets and towels
• Bleach and Dawn dish detergent
• Cat litter
• Pet carriers
• Gently used pet beds

♻️ Clear out the clutter. Keep useful items out of the landfill. Help our neighbors and their pets. It's a win for our community and our planet! 🌎❤️

Town of Abingdon, Virginia

10/26/2026

What a fantastic cleanup!! At our Muster Grounds Stream Cleanup yesterday with Sustain Abingdon, we had 29 volunteers and a calm and friendly dog, Frampton!

Clean Virginia Waterways provided eco-friendly trash bags, buckets, adult and kid size gloves, litter grabbers, posters, and data cards to track what we picked up.

Sustain Abingdon provided funds to the Roundtable for T-shirts and pizza. Deb Robinson did lots of great promotion for the event.

Our StreamSweepers picked up litter and found lots of unusual items plus a tire, of course! They spend the week cleaning up our rivers while navigating in canoes and always find lots of tires.

Tom McMullen recruited a Tumbling Creek C***r team that picked up lots of litter!

Boy Scout Troop 222 pitched in and found plenty of litter to bag.

We will post the totals and a breakdown of what was picked up in our next post.

Thanks to everyone for supporting this event and making Wolf Creek a cleaner waterway!!

10/26/2026

If you plan to apply for our StreamSweeper positions, turn in your application today!

For more info on the job duties, look at our StreanSweepers website and our StreamSweepers page!!

10/25/2026

Join us at the historic Muster Grounds! We will meet at the cul de sac at the end of French Moore Blvd at 2 pm today. See you soon!

Save the date and join us for our annual Muster Grounds Stream Cleanup with Sustain Abingdon!

10/25/2026

Thanks to everyone who donated and attended our Three Rivers Art Auction yesterday!! Thanks to Sweetbay Brewing for hosting our event and to the fabulous musicians for spending time with us. Lots and lots of art, tasty food, and a lively auction with Adam Wilson. Thanks, Adam!! Another thanks to our amazing board members for making tasty food and helping with the event, which takes a lot of time and effort, but it was a fun time!!