Keep America Unsustainable
By Bela Sanchez
Even to those who have never heard of the organization before, the name Keep America Beautiful sounds friendly and kind-hearted. And general consensus would agree; Keep America Beautiful is certainly an organization that does work that benefits the Earth and its inhabitants. So, if you think Keep America Beautiful is doing good and great things, you aren’t wrong. You just aren’t exactly right either.
Keep America Beautiful (KAB) is a non-profit organization with a very specific focus: less litter and more recycling. It was founded in 1953 after the interstate highway system was finished and the country began to see the massive amounts of garbage we create strewn across their brand-new roadways.
Since its inception, KAB has inspired communities across the nation to engage in anti-litter activities and organizations. The Great American Cleanup, for example, involved an estimated 33,700 communities and 3.9 million people in 2010, and the Cigarette Litter Prevention Program has cut cigarette butt litter by nearly 50%.
But KAB was not just formed by do-gooders, little guys, and a little help from the government, however much their programs may seem that way. KAB had a more specific motivation in mind, and it was driven by two big guns in the consumer industry that you may often think of as rivals: PepsiCo and Coca-Cola.
KAB was indeed formed to reduce litter production, but it was not created to reduce consumption. PepsiCo and Coca-Cola provided huge money to the creation of an organization that would foist the responsibility of pollution and unsustainability on the individual “litterbug,” rather than the corporations responsible for that litter’s original inception. Just as Americans were beginning to understand that maybe industry and the culture of consumption were a problem, industry swore to them, “No, really, it’s not me, it’s you.”
While it cannot be denied that Keep America Beautiful has a big national impact, there is a lot to be said for the fact that they do not expand their focus beyond picking up trash and recycling plastic bottles. In fact, Keep America Beautiful has come under criticism many times for encouraging litter diversion while ignoring the possibilities of recycling legislation and resisting fundamental changes in packaging.
The further past the surface you scratch, the more questionable Keep America Beautiful’s campaigns become. From their Recycle-Bowl — sponsored by Nestle — to their “Do Good. Have Fun.” campaign — partnered with Bud Light — to their “I Want to Be Recycled” PSA — created by Unilever — every major campaign by KAB has involved the money of a major production corporation. So while their programs encourage you to divert plastic to recycling bins or pick up litter where you see it, KAB is turning a blind eye to companies who continue the status quo of endless plastic bottles and aluminum cans.
Keep America Beautiful does not exist to educate Americans on our flaws or facilitate our growth into more sustainable citizens. It exists so that everyone — citizens and corporations, alike — can give themselves a pat on the back for a job well done before they go buy another case of plastic Diet Coke bottles.
Keep America Beautiful is a case of greenwashing — making companies seem more environmentally responsible than they are — at its finest, a nationwide attempt to prove that our culture of consumption isn’t the problem, just the way we deal with the aftermath. It is true that you may be a litterbug. But there’s a litter monster out there blaming you for its trash, too.
