Results

  Rivers Alive Volunteers Making A Difference

Rivers Alive, a program of the Georgia Environmental Protection Division Outreach Program, has celebrated over 15 years of cleaning up Georgia's waterways. Throughout the history of Rivers Alive, over 534 thousand volunteers extracted 131.0 million pounds of garbage from 38.0 thousand miles of waterway. While these numbers indicate the tremendous impact this program has had on communities and their watersheds in the past, the numbers from each successive year's cleanups indicate that Rivers Alive will continue to grow into the next decade.

  Yearly totals

 The graphs on the right illustrate how the cleanups have grown in the past ten years.

YearNo. of EventsNo. of VolunteersVolunteer Hours# of BagsDump Trucks / DumpstersPounds of Garbage CollectedMiles Cleaned
1999 61 6534 23568 3969 10 99385 10
2000 87 14774 68514 8322 59 182532 336
2001 99 18563 73975 14325 55 117999 512
2002 125 16766 61934 15143 70 302056 780
2003 157 24283 87449 8645 69 342252 1440
2004 141 22623 79421 5697 69 573672 1250
2005 153 24595 85001 8984 17 684000 2919
2006 144 25020 92140 10740 58 708322 2395
2007 156 24726 76934 4407 84 709166 2278
2008 167 26864 91001 22068 55 742065 2265
2009 180 25976 106042 14517 100 952619 2154
2010 223 24469 89721 6964 115 1101357 2179
2011 240 28083 100202 9045 281 687590 1763
2012 312 29172 108430 8101 85 722340 2114
2013 284 27807 125118 16489 41 597290 1968
2014 274 24753 93693 7781 54 656179 1655
2015 251 24395 84108 6698 41 414160 2411
2016 213 22698 84502 5412 64 503472 1583
2017 264 26482 81298 7296 85 432049 1650
2018 242 23709 84672 21273 79 469421 1182
2019 245 24907 75664 5887 60 511994 1289
2020 135 10712 53576 3432 368 280960 905
2021 129 9677 33136 4593 64 347061 1060
2022 143 12419 38887 5326 34 410299 668
2023 164 9811 30586 4229 95 308135 1188
2024 84 4579 15090 2201 53 312515 534
Totals 4673 534397 1944662 231544 2165 13168890 38488
YearShow

Number of Volunteers Participating


2024 : 4579 2023 : 9811 2022 : 12419 2021 : 9677 2020 : 10712 2019 : 24907 2018 : 23709 2017 : 26482 2016 : 22698 2015 : 24395


Volunteer Hours

2024 : 15090 2023 : 30586 2022 : 38887 2021 : 33136 2020 : 53576 2019 : 75664 2018 : 84672 2017 : 81298 2016 : 84502 2015 : 84108


Pounds of Garbage Collected (thousands)

2024 : 313 2023 : 308 2022 : 410 2021 : 347 2020 : 281 2019 : 512 2018 : 469 2017 : 432 2016 : 503 2015 : 414


Estimated Miles Cleaned

2024 : 534 2023 : 1188 2022 : 668 2021 : 1060 2020 : 905 2019 : 1289 2018 : 1182 2017 : 1650 2016 : 1583 2015 : 2411


Number of Events

2024 : 84 2023 : 164 2022 : 143 2021 : 129 2020 : 135 2019 : 245 2018 : 242 2017 : 264 2016 : 213 2015 : 251