Keep America Beautiful

By Lisa Kay Mencer

Graduate Student
Ferris State University

Definition

Keep America Beautiful, while founded in 1953, made its greatest national impact in 1971 with its “Crying Indian” PSA (public service announcement) to support the first Earth Day. “Keep America Beautiful is the largest community improvement organization in America with over 560 affiliates.” (Wikipedia)

The organization states that its mission is “to engage individuals to take greater responsibility for improving their community environments.” KAB focuses on litter prevention, beautification and community improvement, and waste reduction. (Keep America Beautiful)

In 2004, the most recent year statistics are tabulated, Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia states that Keep America Beautiful and its local affiliates were responsible for:

Cleanups

• Litter & debris collected: 150,000,000 lb
• Roads, streets & highways cleaned: 97,000 miles
• RR tracksides cleaned: 900 miles
• Area of parks cleaned: 32,300 acres
• Hiking/biking/nature trails cleaned: 2,000 miles
• Playgrounds & community recreation areas cleaned, restored, constructed: 4,000
• Rivers, lakes & shoreline cleaned: 6,500 miles
• Underwater cleanups conducted: 80
• Wetlands restored: 8,200 acres Illegal dumpsites cleaned: 2,600
• Junk cars removed: 7,200

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

• Clothing collected for reuse: 5,800,000 lb
• Bags of aluminum/steel recycled: 645,000
• Bags of newspaper recycled: 691,000
• Tires collected for recycling: 1,220,000
• Batteries collected for recycling: 21,000

Beautification

• Trees planted: 131,000
• Flowers and bulbs planted: 5,000,000
• Homes & commercial buildings painted: 1,300
• Graffiti sites abated: 6,000

Historic Roots

“Keep America Beautiful was founded in 1953 by group of businessmen from the beverage and packaging industries. KAB has a significant number of corporate sponsors. Its strongest support comes from beverage and packaging industries but includes a wide range of industries.” (SourceWatch)

The Highway Beautification Act of 1965, spearheaded by Lady Bird Johnson, called for improving landscaping, removing billboards, and screening roadside junkyards. The act served to popularize the notion of cleaning up America’s environment.

SourceWatch, a project of the Center for Media and Democracy lists the following key events in the history of Keep America Beautiful:

In the early 1970s a new campaign was launched with the theme “People Start Pollution, People Can Stop It.”

In 1975 KAB introduced a Clean Community System campaign which encouraged local communities to clean up their litter.

In the 1980s the Clean Community System expanded and became more focused on encouraging people to recycle.

In the 1990s there was a new campaign theme “Let’s not waste the 1990’s” which purported to support a sensible strategy to managing waste with source reduction, recycling, composting, incineration and sanitary landfilling.

In 1999 KAB introduced the Great American Cleanup campaign, where volunteers are organized to clean up their communities. (SourceWatch)

Importance

There is no doubt that the projects sponsored and supported by Keep America Beautiful have made a positive impact on the landscape of America. The statistics noted above and the popularity of the movement, measured by the number of local affiliates, cannot be dismissed lightly.

Another obvious fact is that Keep America Beautiful’s Great American Cleanup campaign is very successful at helping local groups of concerned citizens focus on and take action to improve their city’s appearance.

Finally, the series of Public Service Announcements (PSA’s) created by Keep America Beautiful, beginning with Iron Eyes Cody as the “Crying Indian,” have raised the level of awareness about our responsibilities as individuals and community members to help reduce litter and trash.

However, among some environmental groups, Keep America Beautiful is a controversial organization. “The fact remains that more than 75 corporations fund KAB. The strongest supporters of KAB are beverage manufacturers like Coke and Pepsi and their trade association, the National Soft Drink Association.

Together with packaging companies they promote Clean Community Systems and litter taxes as alternatives or replacements for container deposit laws and other government regulations that make those companies responsible for their products and packaging.” (Container Recycling Institute)

Ties to the Philanthropic Sector

A typical nonprofit is formed by a group of concerned citizens who wish to promote a cause or position but lack the impact or funds to do so as individuals. They come together under the nonprofit banner to attract both funding and participation from like minded individuals. The nonprofit designator is used as an indicator that the organization created by these individuals has as its only goal the advancement of the cause or position for which it was formed, not to financially profit from its advancement. In addition, the nonprofit designator allows philanthropists and other supporters to support the cause or position financially and take advantage of tax laws that facilitate that support.

Keep America Beautiful seems to have been created for a different set of motives than one would typically associate with a nonprofit. Keep America Beautiful was originally formed by a group of people representing for-profit companies from the beverage industry, an industry creating a significant amount of potential litter. KAB is funded by a combination of both private and corporate donations. Chartered and managed as a nonprofit, KAB counts on significant donations from public, for- profit companies to support its programs.

While the motives behind the formation of and the day-to-day funding of Keep America Beautiful are not typical of a nonprofit, the inherent benefits to society of the activities of KAB resonate with the intent of those founding a more traditional nonprofit. In this respect, KAB supports the efficacy of the nonprofit sector.

Key Related Ideas

Community organizing “is a process by which people are brought together to act in common self-interest. While organizing describes any activity involving people interacting with one another in a formal manner, much community organizing is in the pursuit of a common agenda. Many groups seek populist goals and the ideal of participatory democracy. Community organizers create social movements by building a base of concerned people, mobilizing these community members to act, and developing leadership from and relationships among the people involved.” (Wikipedia)

Recycling “is the reprocessing of using materials that would otherwise become waste in order to break them down and remake them into new products. Recycling prevents the waste being sent to a landfill or incinerator, reduces the consumption of new raw materials, and is advocated by supporters to require less energy than virgin production. Commonly recycled materials include glass, paper, aluminum, asphalt, steel, textiles and plastic. (Wikipedia)

Reuse “is putting an item to another use after its original function has been fulfilled. T