Michaela Barnett spent a lot of time as a teen picking up trash.
"I was the kid in high school that, during the fun days, I was separating everyone's picnic detritus, like 'no this should be recycled,'" she said.
Though she's still just as concerned about the environment, Barnett has focused her energies away from trash and further upstream.
She founded KnoxFill, a zero-waste way for Knoxville consumers concerned with sustainability to get the home cleaning and hygiene products they need.
Instead of picking up trash, she wants to stop some of it from ever being produced.
"Waste doesn't happen at the point of disposal," Barnett told Knox News. "It happens at the point of purchase and generation."