Keep America Beautiful Month

The month of April is the annual Keep America Beautiful (KAB) month, and it occurs in conjunction with other environmentally centered commemorative days, such as Earth Day on April 22 and Arbor Day on April 30. The Keep America Beautiful organization is responsible for organizing events throughout the month when volunteers work together to keep their communities clean and beautiful and reduce environmental impact. The goal of this non-profit group is to raise awareness about littering and recycling and instill community pride by beautifying local landscapes in communities. Some environmental advocates have critiqued KAB and its initiatives as corporate greenwashing, industry propaganda that appears to be environmentally responsible, but instead deflects most of the responsibility for plastic pollution from KAB's corporate sponsors to individual consumers.

During the month, more than forty thousand events take place throughout the country to encourage people to clean up communities by picking up litter, recycling, and planting flowers, shrubs, and trees. Community grants are available for more expensive projects, such as installing public trash cans or helping clean up after natural disasters. Partnerships with local community agencies also encourage bigger changes, and service projects are organized for middle and high school students to provide them with education about leadership and civic improvement.

Background

KAB was founded in 1953 by several corporations, non-profit organizations, and governmental agencies. Some of these groups included manufacturers such as the American Can Company, Owens-Illinois Glass Company, Coca-Cola, and the Dixie Cup Company. The goal was to tackle the postwar problem of litter. Critics of KAB agreed that litter was a problem but disagreed that individuals bore most of the responsibility for littering and recycling when corporations, including KAB's sponsors, relied on single-use plastic packaging for their products.

After World War II, manufacturers began producing more consumable goods, many of these in disposable containers. Then in the mid-to-late 1950s, the US Interstate Highway System began construction, allowing Americans to become more mobile—but roadside litter quickly became a problem. KAB was created to educate the public about littering and engage partnerships with industrial, governmental, and other like-minded non-profit organizations. The organizations also became involved in scientific studies related to the impact of litter to provide reports informing the American public about litter and related environmental issues.

KAB began anti-litter media campaigns that included public service announcements (PSAs), television commercials, and brochure distribution. KAB also supported the passage of anti-litter ordinances for individuals caught littering that included fines and jail sentences. Many campaigns have also been launched throughout the history of KAB to remind people of the importance of keeping their communities clean and instilling community pride. Some of these included “People Start Pollution. People Can Stop It” in 1971, which became known as the "Crying Indian" ad; the “Clean Community System” in 1976; and the Great American Cleanup” in 1999. Environmental advocacy groups like the Sierra Club and the Wilderness Society initially supported KAB's anti-littering campaigns but resigned from the organization's advisory board after some KAB leaders opposed bottle-deposit legislation that would have incentivized recycling and reuse.

In 2018, KAB celebrated its 65th anniversary and started a new campaign with the PSA, “Let’s Talk About America," that reached a wide audience. It was also the 20th anniversary of the Great American Cleanup, and that year volunteers spent nearly 9.4 million hours cleaning up public spaces and planting trees, flowers, and shrubs. In addition, volunteers collected nearly sixty million pounds of litter and recyclable material.

In 2021, KAB produced the Keep American Beautiful 2020 National Litter Study, a definitive study on litter in the United States that built on a 2009 study looking at multiple facets of litter, including observational, behavioral, public perception, and cost. It was the largest study of its kind ever produced, and it was considered successful despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The results of the study reported that 90 percent of Americans feel litter is a local problem; roadside litter has decreased by 54 percent over the last decade; and fifty billion pieces of litter are currently on the ground in the United States. Greenpeace and other environmental advocates criticized the report, however, saying that it failed to address the root causes of plastic pollution by corporations, including McDonald's, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and Nestle.

In 2023, KAB announced that it was transferring rights to its 1971 "Crying Indian" ad to the National Congress of American Indians Fund (NCAI). KAB stated that the ad, "which became synonymous with furthering environmental protection and awareness in popular culture at the time of its creation, was later known for featuring imagery that stereotyped American Indian and Alaska Native people and misappropriated Native culture." Iron Eyes Cody (Espera Oscar DeCorti), the actor who portrayed the unnamed "Indian" in the ad, had claimed Cherokee heritage but was Italian American. The NCAI said the ad was inappropriate when it was first aired and had remained so, and the group was restricting its use to settings where it could be presented with its historical context.

Overview

During Keep America Beautiful Month in April, the Keep America Beautiful Great American Cleanup occurs. This spring-cleaning event is the largest community improvement program that gets people involved in local cleanup. Volunteers can register to help with KAB and are then sent a clean-up kit that has a litter picker, garbage bag, work gloves, scale, and reflective vest. They are also connected with events throughout the month in their community to participate, and volunteers can get connected with others to work together with local businesses and community organizations. Volunteers are encouraged to report their results to KAB and to share these on social media.

Keeping Places Clean and Beautiful Locally

Individuals can easily take steps in their local community to keep it clean and beautiful during Keep America Beautiful month and all year long. Everyone should try to reduce, reuse, and recycle waste, and the Keep America Beautiful organization encourages people to take this pledge. It also encourages people to explore transitioning to zero waste by analyzing their product purchasing behavior, reducing or not using single-use items, buying items in bulk, eliminating unnecessary products, refusing promotional items and samples, changing commutes to lower or carbon-free options, finding package-free products to purchase, and reducing food waste.

Keeping the outdoors clean starts in everyone’s yard through trash cleanup. Removing and recycling old, nonworking vehicles or equipment from yards and driveways keeps places cleaner and better looking. KAB hosts a vehicle donation program to help people get rid of unwanted vehicles by offering free pickup and a receipt for tax deduction purposes.

Individuals can also focus on their own yards or shared spaces in the community by planting trees, shrubs, and flowers. Plants are essential to the carbon dioxide cycle, provide habitats for wildlife, and add to the aesthetics of the community. In addition, flowers help pollinators that are critical for the health of the environment. KAB encourages people to research native species of trees, shrubs, and wildflowers and plant these in open spaces on their property or in community garden areas.

Another way to promote cleaner communities is to combine regular outdoor exercise with litter cleanup. Plogging is a fitness movement that integrates jogging and picking up litter. It simply involves stopping to remove litter and placing it in the garbage while jogging around neighborhood roadways or nearby parks, trails, or beaches. Afterward, the litter can be either recycled or disposed of properly. Plogging encourages exercise and enjoying nature while keeping communities clean.

Plastic Free July

While KAB focuses on motivating individual anti-litter actions, other organizations have focused on bringing about systemic changes. In 2011, the nonprofit Plastic Free Foundation (PFF) started Plastic Free July, a campaign to raise awareness about and address the root causes of global plastic waste, with a focus on global plastics treaty negotiations and systemic changes necessary for eliminating plastic waste. Other organizations, such as Beyond Plastic, also observed Plastic Free July, and PFF reported that 174 million participants from 190 countries took part in Plastic Free July in 2024.

Bibliography

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“Keep America Beautiful 2020 National Litter Study.” Keep America Beautiful, 2023, kab.org/litter-study/. Accessed 29 Apr. 2023.

“Keep PCB Beautiful.” Keep PCP Beautiful Organization, 2023, www.keeppcbbeautiful.org/great-american-cleanup. Accessed 29 Apr. 2023.

Plastic Free July, Plastic Free Foundation, 2025, www.plasticfreejuly.org. Accessed 21 July 2025.

"Plastic Free July Action Calendar." Beyond Plastics, July 2025, www.beyondplastics.org/from-the-grassroots/plastic-free-july-calendar. Accessed 21 July 2025.

Plummer, Bradford. “The Origins of Anti-Litter Campaigns” Mother Jones, 2006, www.motherjones.com/politics/2006/05/origins-anti-litter-campaigns/. Accessed 21 July 2025.

Schmall, Emily. "'Crying Indian' Ad That Targeted Pollution to Be Retired." The New York Times, 27 Feb. 2023, www.nytimes.com/2023/02/27/us/native-american-pollution-ad.html. Accessed 21 July 2025.

Strand, Ginger. "The Crying Indian." Orion, Nov./Dec. 2008, orionmagazine.org/article/the-crying-indian/. Accessed 21 July 2025.