In 1893, writer Katharine Lee Bates stood at the apex of Pikes Peak in Colorado and beheld a view that inspired her to write the poem that would become the song “America the Beautiful.”
“All the wonder of America seemed displayed there with sea-like expanse,” history records Bates as noting.
In contrast, country singer Ed Bruce sang, “There ain’t no lower class than Tennessee trash,” in a scolding 1976 public service announcement designed to discourage Volunteer State residents from treating their highways and byways like a garbage can.
As more and more of the goods people used became disposable, America the Beautiful was becoming a cluttered expanse where one man’s trash was less another man’s treasure and more another man’s mess to clean up.
In a bid to turn the untidy tide, states launched anti-litter programs like Keep Tennessee Beautiful and tried to discourage littering by making it a crime.
Despite these measures, the problem persists today, laments Jimmy Urciuoli, executive director of Green Steps, a Chattanooga nonprofit that labors to eradicate litter and reduce waste through community cleanups and education.
“It astounds me that litter even exists,” Urciuoli says. “How could someone be so disconnected from their actions that they can’t wait to find a trash can?”
Talking trash
Urciuoli grew up in a rural Georgia community that offered ample creeks and woodlands for his childhood romps. He became an environmental activist at a tender age when he and his best friend began bagging the garbage they spotted during their excursions. By the time Urciuoli was 10, he was sending mailers to his neighbors about environmental issues.
Urciuoli still has a distaste for improperly discarded waste. Cigarette butts, shattered beer bottles and other litter are not just unsightly and a nuisance to clean up, he says, but also can have devastating impacts on the environment and the economy.
“Trash can end up in birds’ digestive systems and kill or harm other animals,” Urciuoli explains. “And while there are varying statistics on how litter impacts property values, heavily littering has been shown to reduce property values in an area by 7.5%.”
On another monetary note, litter mitigation drains capital that governments could spend elsewhere. The Tennessee Department of Transportation shells out more than $23 million a year on litter pickup and prevention efforts alone, its 2024 Litter Grant Annual Report reveals.
“The impacts are not localized, either,” Urciuoli continues. “If you live near a creek, then that creek flows to a river and that river flows to an ocean and that ocean contains an island of floating trash.”
(Urciuoli is referring to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which multiple environmental websites estimate to be about the size of Texas.)
Invasion of the litterbugs
Large-scale efforts collect staggering quantities of refuse. During TDOT’s annual No Trash November campaign, more than 2,400 volunteers participated in 175 cleanups that gathered nearly 70,000 pounds of trash, the department reports.
Major campaigns like No Trash November make a dent in litter but leave plenty of pickings for smaller, grassroots ventures such as Green Steps, which organizes local litter cleanups that draw between 20 and 50 volunteers and fill enough bags to warrant sending the city a trash pickup request via the 3-1-1 app.
Green Steps has its beginnings in the earnest efforts of founder Alyssandra Grizenko, a Colorado native and lover of all things outdoors who began putting together informal cleanups at Suck Creek in 2017.
“People go to Suck Creek looking for easy access to a swimming hole – and easy access makes it easy to bring a cooler full of beer,” Urciuoli says. “People get drunk and party and don’t think about cleaning up.”
Grizenko founded Green Steps in 2018 and housed it as an incubator with the Southeast Tennessee Resource Conservation and Development Council. This allowed the nascent nonprofit to receive grant funding for its cleanups.
Green Steps became its own entity in 2020. Today, the nonprofit relies on donations and sponsorships to purchase the equipment and supplies volunteers need as they venture out to do the community’s dirty work.
No litter left behind
From the heart of downtown Chattanooga to the city’s suburban extremities and rural areas, there’s no patch of the Scenic City area that Green Steps hasn’t touched. Volunteers have cleared the gutters outside Community Kitchen on 11th Street, spruced up Greenway Farms in Hixson and restored the unsullied beauty of North Chickamauga Creek Gorge State Park – for starters.
While a 3-1-1 request can usually dispose of what helpers gather, Green Steps occasionally collects enough rubbish to require more capacity.
“We had to order a dumpster for our Patterson Boat Ramp cleanup because the trash was so extreme,” Urciuoli recalls.
One of Green Steps’ highest volume cleanups took place in a wooded area next to Mountain Creek Road.
“It was an abandoned homeless camp – and the amount of garbage was unreal,” Urciuoli says. “When your needs aren’t being met and you’re mentally ill or on drugs, those things fall to the wayside.”
Green Steps provides its volunteers with protective gear for the riskier cleanups. During past events, crews have removed used syringes, human waste and, on one occasion, a decomposed device designed for sexual stimulation.
Despite these and other grave findings, the mood during most cleanups is festive, Urciuoli says, and worker leave “beaming” after acquiring a sense of accomplishment.
“Environmental problems can seem too far removed or too abstract for most of us to be able to do anything about them, but picking up litter is an example of something we can all do that makes a difference. Everyone can lend a hand and turn what looks like a wasteland back into a beautiful space. It’s a good feeling.”
Even better, Urciuoli says, Green Steps’ cleanups bridge the political divide.
“Many environmental problems, such as climate change, are still politically controversial and tend to cause a rift. But litter brings people from along the entire political spectrum together. That’s what I like the most about this particular environmental issue; it unites people.”
Urciuoli also looks forward to hearing the stories of the bizarre items people found during a cleanup.
“We once found a metal baby carriage wrapped in barbed wire near a tree in which someone had placed several My Little Pony toys. That was very unusual.”
Also surprising – and far less disturbing – to find were the vintage glass bottles, the set of Pyrex dishes and the wallet with an ID that expired in the 1990s. Urciuoli even has a decorative item he found during a cleanup in his home.
Despite these silver linings, Urciuoli says he’d gladly shutter Green Steps if Chattanooga were able to toss its litter problem out with yesterday’s garbage. Reaching this milestone would take two things: money and education.
Dollars and sense
If ever a nonprofit was a grassroots organization, then Green Steps is – and not because its volunteers often find themselves knee deep in weeds as they pick up litter at a park or vacant lot. Rather, Green Steps relies on small donations and sponsorships to help it purchase supplies and spread the word about upcoming events.
One regular sponsor is the city of Red Bank, which partners with Green Steps to do four citywide cleanups a year.
“We cover the whole town,” Urciuoli notes. “People sign up ahead of time and then meet at our hub, where we hand out supplies and equipment. We then disperse them in groups.”
Urciuoli adds that Green Steps’ collaboration with Red Bank says good things about the city.
“I have to give them their flowers. They’re committed to keeping their city clean and they’re hands-on with the planning, so it’s a true partnership.”
Green Steps typically asks for $500 per cleanup, so even individuals have sponsored an event. The organization also welcomes small donations.
Steering Chattanooga toward a more pristine tomorrow, however, would also take education, says Urciuoli.
“Litter is a result of a lack of education and awareness. It’s also a cultural thing. Statistically, men ages 18 to 30 are the highest litterers of any demographic.”
To that end, Green Steps’ website (greenstepschatt.com) provides a number of educational resources, including a guide to waste reduction and a 15-minute video of a TEDxChattanooga talk Urciuoli gave in 2021 about his personal history with litter – including the time a judge sentenced him to 40 hours of picking up trash at age 16.
During the talk, Urciuoli revealed that Green Steps had collected 1.6 million pounds of litter in its short life span. The nonprofit, which has started counting bags instead of pounds, now reports that its volunteers have stuffed 16,000 kitchen-sized bags with refuse.
If only Bruce were still around the record a song about the Chattanoogans who take pride in keeping their city clean. After all, there ain’t no higher class than folks who pick up Tennessee trash.