A volunteer in a mustard-yellow jacket kneels on a rocky shoreline at golden hour to gather kelp and litter from the tide line, breaking waves and a bright cloud-lit sky filling the open water to her left.

Let’s do beautiful things

Turn action
into beauty

Keep America Beautiful brings together local affiliates, corporate partners and individuals to do beautiful things that lead to healthier neighborhoods and meaningful community improvements.

2026 National Litter Study

Litter is down 34% across America

Litter along America’s roadways and waterways has fallen 34% since 2020, and every American’s share dropped from 152 pieces to 96. There’s still work to do. Thirty-five billion pieces remain, and coastal areas, measured nationally for the first time, carry 8 to 13 times more litter per mile than inland.

Download the 2026 National Litter Study

Six volunteers in high-visibility vests work their way along a city sidewalk under an elevated rail bridge, carrying green collection bags and litter grabbers, a woman in the foreground holding hers open mid-sweep.

One day the whole country recycles together

November 15. America Recycles Day is the only nationally recognized day dedicated to recycling in the United States — a single date to learn what actually goes in the bin, and to keep doing it the other 364 days.

Learn more

Give Thanks, Not Waste: Simple Ways to Celebrate a More Sustainable Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is one of America’s most cherished holidays—a time to gather with family and friends, share a delicious meal, and express gratitude for all we have.

Turning love for where we live into action

73 years

Since 1953, neighbors have come together through Keep America Beautiful to make the places they love cleaner, greener and more beautiful.

700+ affiliates

Local organizations across the country, turning that care into cleanups, plantings, recycling drives and community projects.

51+ billion pounds

That’s how much litter volunteers have collected through our programs and events. With 35 billion pieces still out there, there’s room for every pair of hands.

Source: Keep America Beautiful and affiliates

Clean. Green. Beautiful.

Two volunteers in yellow safety vests and work gloves laugh as they walk across a sunny park lawn carrying buckets and litter grabbers.

End littering

From roadsides to shorelines, neighbors team up to keep streets, parks and waterways clean for everyone who loves them.

See the impact

Four smiling young volunteers in blue gloves tip a blue bin of bottles and cans into a large recycling container.

Improve recycling

Recycling right gives valuable materials a second life. We share simple ways to do it well, at home and across your community.

Recycle right

A volunteer in a red T-shirt and three young neighbors crouch around a garden bed in the sun, setting silvery dusty-miller plants into fresh soil beside orange nursery pots.

Beautify communities

Tree plantings, pollinator gardens and bright new murals turn shared spaces into places people are proud to call home.

Grow beauty

Do Beautiful Things · The podcast

What Americans Really Think About Litter: The Perception Gap

A new podcast episode explores why 94% of Americans view litter as a major problem even as national rates decline.

Listen to this episode

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