Photo above courtesy of Barry Krebs

by Lindsey Bankston

“I have a strong passion for the environment, and I genuinely cannot think of anything else I would rather be doing on a Saturday morning,” said Barry Krebs, an avid volunteer and the Chair of the 2022-23 Keep Cobb Beautiful (KCB) board of directors.

The members and volunteers of KCB are vocal about how grateful they are to have an outlet for recycling and waste reduction, seeing the importance of a program like this with the unique set up of trash collection in the county.

Its Purpose

Since 1984, when the organization was called the Cobb Clean Commission, the minds behind the Keep Cobb Beautiful organization have made a commitment to remove waste within the county.

Today, KCB is a Keep America Beautiful affiliate focusing on three main elements: litter prevention, beautification and waste reduction/recycling.

Composed of regular Cobb residents, board members receive no compensation for their involvement. The hope of the group is solely to take care of their home. As the largest affiliate in Cobb, KCB also plays a big hand in the trash collection process, serving unincorporated Cobb County and cities without an affiliate.

The group holds all kinds of community events, usually at Jim Miller Park in Marietta, that involve the collection of trash and materials that cannot readily be recycled, a requirement of Keep America Beautiful affiliates. Some of their most popular collection events are for textiles, hard-to-recycle plastics, metals, medications, electronics, and shredding.

Waste Reduction in Cobb

A 2020 study from Keep America Beautiful outlined the main sources of litter in the country, citing approximately 25.9 billion pieces of litter in waterways around the nation, only a bit more than the 23.7 billion littered around roadways. Cigarette butts were the most reported type of litter.

This was true even in Cobb County, encouraging KCB to partner with KAB to put a cigarette litter prevention program in place to combat the amount of cigarette butts that end up in the county water supply.

KCB has arranged many outings to tackle litter reduction, and in District 4 of Cobb, the work has not gone unnoticed. The Mableton area takes cleanup seriously, and plenty of volunteers, including a few public officials, have taken part in these events.

Mableton Councilwoman Patricia Auch has been especially interested in the work of Keep Cobb Beautiful, and has been present at many cleanups.

She thinks the Adopt-a-Mile program is a notable one for KCB that has been a great benefit for her district.

KCB’s Adopt-a-Mile program is another litter prevention activity that has attracted eyes in the district. According to KCB’s District 4 project report, Adopt-a-Mile has proven to be highly successful in that area.

“The program encourages civic engagement and helps build better communities by bringing neighbors together for the common purpose of making their community a cleaner and more beautiful place to live,” said Councilwoman Auch. “Adopt-a-mile cleanups can also be very eye-opening when people see first-hand just how big our litter problem really is.”

Bringing the Community Together

Volunteers are a welcome sight for KCB, and events like their end-of-the-year Volunteer Appreciation Gala show just that as the most dedicated businesses, groups, and individuals are awarded. Among the awards are “Volunteer of the Year” and “Litter Prevention Youth Group of the Year.”

Cobb Chief Sustainability Officer, Kimberly White said she is pleased with the impact KCB has had on the county, stating she believes that “people are used to us doing these events and then are familiar with us because of them, knowing that they can rely on their material to actually be recycled, easing their minds in the process.”

The community response they have gotten with each event put on has been great and gives the board members hope for how serious the county has begun to take environmental cleanup.

Councilwoman Auch stands by the mission of KCB, and its community events like “Adopt-a-Mile,” stating “It’s a program that’s easy to implement and greatly benefits neighborhoods by providing individuals, families, organizations, and businesses an opportunity to gain recognition while beautifying their community.”

Along with pride from volunteers, board members express a pride in being able to relieve citizens of their hard-to-rid trash. In turn they are able to lessen the amount of waste that will end up placed into landfills, especially because the seven cities of Cobb County are an open market for garbage callers this is at the top of KCB’s list.

Because of this when people want to dump their trash there is a hefty bill alongside it, not to forget that landfills are consistently overrun in the county. So much so that dumped trash needs to be driven over to neighboring counties like Cherokee and Forsyth. When those overflow the trash must be transported to Alabama.

Chief Sustainability Officer White feels that this makes Cobb’s trash issue problematic for other areas and increases the need to take KCB seriously as they create free alternatives to dumping within county lines, repurposing waste.

Call to the Youth

To board member Dora Locklear a big part of this project is the impact it will have on the youth. She recalls a conversation with her youngest daughter as she realized that the younger generation will be stuck footing the bill, after older generations die leaving behind trash.

“I don’t suggest the youth do all the work, but they do have a higher stake in it after we go,” said Dora Locklear, pointing out that it has been a heartwarming sight for her seeing the youth be proactive about environmental care, coming out to volunteer and speeding up the process tenfold.

She fondly remembers six youth soccer teams that came to volunteer at a county shredding event, commending their hard work that day as they swooped into action at each station making the process easy and enjoyable for all involved.

What Locklear really wants citizens to know about Keep Cobb Beautiful and the cleanup they do is that it’s for everyone and many hands involved will make for a light load.