April is officially recognized as Keep America Beautiful month, so named after our nation's largest non-profit organization. What does this have to do with USA Love List? Read on and we'll tell you…
Keep America Beautiful was organized in 1953 to bring corporate and private individuals together to promote the importance of keeping America's public spaces clean and beautiful. For over 50 years Keep America Beautiful has informed the American public on the need of individuals and communities to reduce waste, pick up litter, and make recycling a common practice.
Today, with over 1,000 participating and affiliating organizations and millions of volunteers, Keep America Beautiful stresses the great importance of individuals coming together to make their community's environment cleaner and healthier.
The Great American Cleanup
One of the organization's oldest programs started in 1985 as the GLAD Bag-a-Thon and is today known as The Great American Cleanup. Communities all over the United States hold events throughout the month of April, that bring individuals together to improve their environment. Some examples of the events held could be a community organized clean-up, a temporary free electronics waste disposal site, or even the planting of a community garden.
To find a Great American Cleanup event near you, or to register an event that you are planning, check out this website.
So what does the Keep America Beautiful organization have to do with businesses and manufacturers in the United States?
With years of experience, Keep America Beautiful has the research to prove that a community that is environmentally happy is also economically happy. Businesses are more likely to move to a community that looks and feels clean, and consumers are more likely to approach businesses with such surroundings.
In 1988, Keep America Beautiful started the Solid Waste Committee that consists of waste experts from industry and government. In the years since, manuals have been written and published by Keep America Beautiful to help businesses reduce and safely dispose of their waste.
In honor of Keep America Beautiful month, I will be doing a series on the 3 R's of environmental responsibility-Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle- and their relation to American made products and manufacturers. Don't miss next week's post on the first R- which will include tips to reducing waste with made in the USA products!
I do remember this from when I was in school! I’m glad it’s still going strong. I just hope that businesses keep supporting the cause.
I like The Great American Cleanup! I feel so bad when I see litter and I can’t understand why people do that!
Great information
I didn’t know about this! This is great I am not sure if my community has anything like this going on but I will have to find out. I do remember Keep America Beatuiful but I didn’t know April was Keep America Beatuiful month. Thanks
I need to get involved in these kinds of activities! Thanks for writing about this!
Thanks for the reminder! I’ll have to look for a local event. I’d love to start getting my daughters involved in community service.
This is awesome! I will have to look for a local event. Thanks for sharing!
I so remember when I was in elementary school and we always had Keep America Beautiful activities, including going around the neighborhood and picking up garbage. I still do that near my own home, even though some folks think I am a bit eccentric…too bad.