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 520 thousand volunteers extracted 126.0 million pounds of garbage from 36.0 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 111 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 258 24647 84608 6831 41 417092 2421
2016 219 22911 84797 5485 80 544471 1592
2017 264 26482 81298 7278 58 431789 1596
2018 242 23725 84703 21254 71 469715 1180
2019 250 24976 75530 5951 56 514239 1293
2020 138 10736 53651 3498 371 282560 908
2021 129 9672 33113 4619 57 348781 1064
2022 134 11884 38314 5153 21 409945 624
2023 9 150 352 72 0 5572 11
Totals 4446 520191 1899509 225338 1973 12602988 36707
YearShow

Number of Volunteers Participating


2023 : 150 2022 : 11884 2021 : 9672 2020 : 10736 2019 : 24976 2018 : 23725 2017 : 26482 2016 : 22911 2015 : 24647 2014 : 24753


Volunteer Hours

2023 : 352 2022 : 38314 2021 : 33113 2020 : 53651 2019 : 75530 2018 : 84703 2017 : 81298 2016 : 84797 2015 : 84608 2014 : 93693


Pounds of Garbage Collected (thousands)

2023 : 6 2022 : 410 2021 : 349 2020 : 283 2019 : 514 2018 : 470 2017 : 432 2016 : 544 2015 : 417 2014 : 656


Estimated Miles Cleaned

2023 : 11 2022 : 624 2021 : 1064 2020 : 908 2019 : 1293 2018 : 1180 2017 : 1596 2016 : 1592 2015 : 2421 2014 : 1655


Number of Events

2023 : 9 2022 : 134 2021 : 129 2020 : 138 2019 : 250 2018 : 242 2017 : 264 2016 : 219 2015 : 258 2014 : 274