A cleanup of the Swan Creek Wildlife Management Area on Saturday yielded 1,650 pounds of litter being removed, an official said.

The cleanup was organized by Tennessee Riverkeeper, a nonprofit conservation and education group. It’s founder, David Whiteside, said the group prevented more than 19,000 pounds of litter from entering the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers this year.

“These events show that a few people can make a difference, and cleanups provide some hope for hundreds of thousands of citizens who are concerned about our blessed river and its tributaries,” he said. “Clean water is a nonpartisan issue; we are all in this together.”

Most of the trash collected Saturday was some form of plastic, including Styrofoam, plastic bottles, plastic bags and straws. Two televisions and eight tires were also removed, including a few large-truck tires.

“Tires are bad for water quality because they can contain: benzene, arsenic, mercury, styrene-butadiene, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, as well as several other chemicals, heavy metals and carcinogens,” Whiteside said.

He added the roads around Swan Creek WMA also have litter present, including plastics and glass beer bottles. He said litter thrown on a road or street often finds its way to creeks and rivers after a rain event.

Whiteside said there’s no easy solution the litter problem. He added preventing plastics from entering waterways is an obvious solution.

“It is easier to remove garbage from the shorelines and shallow water of creeks and rivers. It is very difficult and inefficient to try to remove litter from deeper water,” he said. “Another important solution is education and informing citizens that littering not only makes our community look trashy, it also impairs fishing and water quality.”