Union County is laid out in beautiful mountains and valleys of prestigious land by nature, but in order for the land to inhibit its full potential, we the people must do our part to keep it clean. Dump sites and roadside litter are perceived regularly across the county and citizens and the community must work together to minimize the litter epidemic.

First, trash versus litter. You may not have realized there was a difference, but nonetheless the definitions are quite the contrary. Trash is typical household items that are discarded while litter is tossed out of a car window or blown out of a truck bed or trailer.

Litter is an unadorned problem that takes a widespread, joint effort to even attempt to be controlled. The problem is, as it is picked up, more is thrown out, making it a continuous cycle. To help with the problem, each citizen can make sure not to litter, ever. Another simple task is to pick up any litter that may be in front of your home, or pick up a road at any time necessary.

Keep Union County Beautiful, KUCB, is an organization in the county that works diligently in keeping the roadways neat and clean. The organization is run by a board and litter officer, Brett Pursel. Tammie Carter, director of the organization for four years, says “I cannot fathom why people litter. Anytime you fill your car up with gas, there are receptacles there at the pumps, simply empty out your car instead of throwing it out of the windows.”

KUCB has an ADOPT-A-Road program in Union County. Your family can do this together and all that is required is for it to be picked up at least four times a year, it is usually a two mile stretch of road. It is asked that everyone wear safety vest and protective gloves, which can be provided by KUCB. Always be smart, if you see something that looks suspicious DO NOT pick it up, call dispatch and get an officer to assist.

Since 2002, KUCB has worked extremely hard at bringing the community together to clean up litter. That is the year of establishment of the program in order for the county to apply for the Three Star they had to adopt a litter program and address the litter problems.

Officer Pursel works meticulously to do the very best job that he can across the 397 county roads. He takes inmates out to pick up roadside trash on almost all days that the weather is nice. He regularly finds dumpsites, cleans them up and goes back to find the same scenario repetitively. There are dumpsites all over the county and roadside litter also, not one area is any worse than another, it is happening across the board. He hits the hotspots more often in hopes of reducing the overall impact.

Pursel sometimes finds pieces of some type of identification at the sites and can press charges to the individuals, which usually results in a fine to be paid. If you see dumping happening, call dispatch to report immediately. Tag numbers are important in identifying those responsible as well.

The litter and dumping not only distorts the beauty of the county, but also has adverse environmental impacts. The impact to the environment is epic, especially since most of the streams in the county run directly into Norris Lake. Wildlife and home water sources are often at the disadvantage.

Results from the Litter Grant Program through FY 2018 for Tennessee’s 95 counties includes 529,736 miles of Tennessee roadways cleaned, 4,332 illegal roadside dumps removed, over 23 million pounds of litter collected, and 9.2 million pounds of litter debris recycled. In 2019 for Union County alone, 111,880 tons of litter, 825 tires, and 178.30 road miles (28.30 of those being State Road miles) were collected and disposed of.

Do your part. Pick up a stretch of your street. Make it a family activity. Teach your children littering is not okay. Get involved. An easy way to do that is to join in on the annual Union County Cleanup Day. The 2020 event is scheduled for Saturday, April 18. It is asked that everyone pick up their individual communities that day and report the number of bags to the KUCB director. There will also be organized spots where people will be able to meet up with groups, and when those are scheduled they will be posted to the Keep Union County Beautiful Facebook page.