From Guest Blogger Dixie Somers: A Look at the Projects that “Keep America Beautiful"

Keep America Beautiful is an organization dedicated to promoting waste reduction, recycling, litter prevention and public space beautification. Founded in 1953, the nonprofit works with community-based affiliate groups, corporate sponsors and local governments to carry out programs that focus on public education, trash collection, recycling and community improvement. This organization always have amazing eco-friendly projects in the works in order to do as their name suggests and truly keep America looking beautiful. Take a look at just a few of the following projects they have up their sleeves for 2015:

Coca-Cola/Keep America Beautiful Recycling Bin Grant Program

In partnership with the Coca-Cola Foundation, Keep America Beautiful will be administering grants aimed at placing more beverage container recycling bins in public spaces and on college campuses. Rather than disburse funds, the program awards recycling bins directly to eligible applicants; approximately 3500 bins are expected to be awarded this year. The program is open to universities, nonprofits, government agencies, and school and church organizations. The goal is to make it easier for individuals to recycle on a daily basis by having as many places to deposit containers as possible. Recycling benefits the environment by reducing the amount of waste that goes to landfills. In addition, it saves the natural resources and energy that would be required to extract and process the raw materials needed to manufacture brand-new containers.

Littering is Wrong Too

This is one of Keep America Beautiful’s public service announcement programs. It targets young adults by utilizing social media and word-of-mouth marketing to raise awareness of how inappropriate the behavior of littering actually is. The campaign aims to get young people to visit its website and social media pages where they will find humorous posts equating littering with other “wrongs,” such as texting while landing an airliner or flirting with the waitress while proposing to your girlfriend. The objective is to make more people aware of the problem and its consequences. According to the professionals at King Recycling & Waste Disposal Inc. who specialize in recycling and waste management services in Toronto, litter is an environmental problem because wind and rain often cause trash to end up in waterways and sensitive ecosystems.

Anheuser-Busch/Keep America Beautiful Community Restoration Grant Program

This is another grant project, but this one is geared towards Keep America Beautiful community affiliates. Grants of $10,000.00 will be awarded for the purpose of restoring and enhancing public and community spaces which have been damaged by natural disasters or wildfires. Many communities are prone to flooding and soil erosion without the plants and grass that would naturally prevent these. Trees serve to clean the air and can help lower energy consumption by providing shade for buildings during summer months. By replacing the lost plants and trees, the program hopes to mitigate the disaster’s long-term impact on the environment.

These are only some of Keep America Beautiful’s current and ongoing initiatives—they always have plenty of exciting and inspiring projects under way. They have many other programs focusing on school campuses, workplaces and cities that need help to keep America beautiful. Keep an eye out for any of these or other projects in your area—you might have a chance to assist in keeping the country pristine and safe from toxins, garbage, or other harmful substances.