November’s creek cleanup was a great success! We had approximately 100 volunteers, not counting the 10 or so who helped coordinate and organize the event this time. Our volunteers pulled 62 bags of trash, 27 bags of recycling and a large amount of scrap metal and random objects out of the creek totaling over 1400 lbs. Some of the more unusual objects we found this time were a couple of mattresses, a crib, an A/C unit and of course another grocery cart. This event not only served Waller Creek; volunteers also cleaned our Adopt-a-Street location and Whitaker Field as well.

Thanks especially to Carin Peterson, Ryan Green, Scott Wiedeman, Laura Davis, Fred Simmons, Nena Anderson, Jason Shoumaker, John Nelson, Charlie Jamison and Peter Schneider for helping to organize and work the event. We are also thankful to Brentye McAtee and Mark McKim from the CEC who helped us to organize and weigh our recycled items.

A heartfelt thanks goes to our former Director, Erle Janssen.  He created the Waller Creek CleanUp and it will be just one of the legacies that he leaves behind here at UT Austin.  Erle was a great supporter of the environment and will be greatly missed.

 A final thank you to Keep Austin Beautiful for their support and donations which helped both the creek and our volunteers!

April Idlett
Environmental Health and Safety
The University of Texas at Austin