Clean Valley Council

Clean Valley Council’s mission is to encourage environmental stewardship and lead the way towards a sustainable tomorrow by educating and inspiring those around us.

We are unwavering. Our story begins in 1978 with a group of concerned citizens determined to combat the litter in their community. Today we are a small but mighty 501(c)3 comprised of devoted employees and a volunteer board, dedicated to environmental stewardship in southwest Virginia and beyond.

We provide free educational resources and programming tailored to the general public, both in schools and through municipal outreach. Our programs center around four key areas: recycling, litter prevention, stormwater protection, and stewardship.

We are taken with southwest Virginia. We still marvel at the sun setting atop Mill Mountain and the simple beauty of the Roanoke River as it churns beneath Wasena Bridge. Each member of our organization, from the board members advancing our mission to the volunteers monitoring and cleaning up local waterways, is driven to preserve our special corner of the planet.

We are on-the-move, and we like it that way. Our dedicated staff works on more than a dozen programs and curriculums throughout the year, and we partner with municipalities and community groups to make these programs impactful. Creating the next generation of environmental stewards is our passion and our legacy. We provide 785 classroom programs annually, reaching more than 16,350 students and more than 2,100 adults. In addition to providing classroom programs, we teach students through engaging field activities like designing, building, and testing a litter boom to catch debris in the Roanoke River.

Through our four annual clean up events, we have collected 2,624 tons of trash in the last 10 years, or roughly the weight of 656 elephants! This was made possible through the work of more than 42,700 volunteers.

We never back down from a challenge. Over the last 40 years, we have brought together some of the area’s brightest minds to address environmental challenges and build support for addressing them. We foster collaboration between municipal agencies on issues ranging from stormwater pollution, renewable energy and recycling challenges to protect shared natural resources.

Our vision for the future is to expand this model to other communities in Virginia. We are always looking for champions within municipal agencies, schools, or businesses to help build a more sustainable Virginia one region at a time.