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Programs & Impact

What we do and what it changes

Keep America Beautiful programs bring people together to end litter, recycle more, beautify public spaces and replant after disasters. Here’s what they do, and the research behind them.

About twenty volunteers in orange and yellow safety vests stand behind a large pile of full white trash bags on a waterfront, a marina of sailboats behind them.

Our impact

Four ways the work shows up

Our work focuses on four areas. Explore the science, the programs and how to take part in each.

A volunteer in a yellow safety vest weighs a full black trash bag on a hand-held scale at a cleanup.

Litter

Litter is a solvable problem. Learn the science behind litter and how we can end it.

End litter
Compressed bales of crushed cans and plastic packaging stacked against a green-and-white corrugated wall printed with the word RECYCLE, the Keep America Beautiful logo in one corner.

Recycling

Small steps you take every day add up. Find out how to recycle more, and recycle right.

Recycle right
Volunteers in matching blue Newark Bloom Team t-shirts kneel in a sidewalk planter, setting a clump of ornamental grass beside pots of yellow flowers.

Beautification

Across the country, neighbors are coming together to make the places they share more beautiful. Here’s how to get started.

Start beautifying
Three volunteers in safety vests hold a newly planted sapling upright in a mound of mulch on a grassy roadside verge.

Restoration & Resiliency

When disaster strikes, restoration helps a community recover and come back stronger. See how our programs, and you, can help.

Help communities recover

Our programs

Three programs powered by one network

Each runs nationally through the affiliate network, with its own season and its own results.

Great American Cleanup®

Every spring, communities across the country come together to clean up, green up and beautify. Find a cleanup near you.

See the cleanup
Service members accepting the America Recycles Day Hero Award at a presentation ceremony.

America Recycles Day®

A national day for recycling better. Find an event near you, or learn how to recycle right at home.

Recycle better
Three Keep Coral Gables Beautiful cigarette receptacles standing side by side, their panels printed with recycling facts, a QR code for reporting a full or damaged unit, and a receptacle ID number.

Cigarette Litter Prevention Program

Cigarette butts can be recycled. Learn how communities are turning the most-littered item into something positive.

See how it works

Where the proof is made

Every number starts on a street like yours

Keep America Beautiful works through 700 local affiliates — community organizations that run cleanups, plantings and recycling drives close to home.

In 2025 alone, 60,000 community events were held across the US.

Find your affiliate
A volunteer in a paint-spattered t-shirt bends to brush blue paint onto a ground mural taped off with caution tape, a rose bed and a stone wall behind him.

Resources, stories and reports

Tools, stories and reports from across our work.

Resource Center

For individuals living a zero-waste lifestyle, teachers looking for educational resources, and companies planning a corporate cleanup day — organized around litter, beautification, recycling, and restoration & resiliency.

Impact Stories

Press releases, the “Do Beautiful Things” podcast, Keep America Beautiful stories and blogs, and affiliate updates.

Annual & Financial Reports

Impact reports, audited financial statements and IRS filings, published in full, year by year.