This fall Keep Tennessee Beautiful (KTnB) and the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association (TSSAA) have teamed up as part of a corporate partnership to better educate students, coaches, officials and principals on the importance of recycling and litter collection.

The R.W. Beck Tennessee 2006 Visible Litter Survey showed that the primary people littering in Tennessee are males between 16 and 34 years of age. The survey also showed that deliberate littering is most done by people ranging from ages 11 to 24, and most negligent litter is committed by adults 30 to 39.

The partnership between KTnB and TSSAA will give adults the chance to have a direct educational relationship with these youngsters who, if they are not educated, will become the negligent people littering Tennessee in the future.

KTnB staff member Howard Cobbs said, “We are trying to encourage them to turn their sporting events into litter-free events.”

TSSAA high school sporting events will be encouraged to be promoted as litter-free events by way of advertising and promotions, as well as having properly placed trash receptacles and volunteers in place to pass trash bags through the stadium seating to encourage fans and students not to litter, and encouraging them to become aware of how easy it is to “do the right thing”.

Cobbs and KTnB State Leader Edith Heller attended and spoke at eight administrator meetings across the state of Tennessee during September, as well as distributing Stop Litter™ items, and other useful printed information.

“Over 500 administrators and coaches attended these meetings, reaching 385 schools,” said Cobbs. “This gave us a huge chance to change the attitudes of young people. If we can change the attitudes, it will have an effect on the negligent litter of tomorrow.”

The partnership has been further expanded with The Right Team. Steven Bargatze, a magician with 26 years of experience, is director of student services for TSSAA. He gives motivational speeches to Tennessee schools, performing magic and entertaining the crowd simultaneously. Last year he reached 50,000 students in 174 schools. This year Bargatze’s message is making right choices, and will include going green with recycling and litter prevention along with his usual bag of tricks.