Keep America Beautiful +

In 1953 a group of American business , nonprofit organizations, government agencies and concerned citizens started a way to combat highway litter. The group was tired of the litter that plagued the highways after the Interstate Highway system had been constructed. The litter was partly due to the growing mobile an convenience oriented America. The goal of the group was to help draw awareness to the issue thus reducing litter through public service advertising.

The term "litterbug" was made popular due to the Keep America Beautiful group and the New York Transit Authority. The group wanted to forward the idea that every individual must help protect against the effects litter has on the environment. Characters such as Susan Spotless were made popular by a television campaign in 1963 - 1964.

In the 1970's a new campaign was started by the Keep American Beautiful group titled "People Start Pollution People can stop it" This ad was known by many as the "Crying Indian ad"

By the mid 1970s Keep America Beautiful introduced a "Clean Community System" The system encouraged local communities to prevent litter. Education efforts, advertising, local research, mapping of litter "hotspots" and cleanup activities. Thousands of letters came in wanting to join programs. The "clean community system" evolved into Keep America Beautiful current network of roughly 580 local "Keep my Town Beautiful"

The goal of a "Great American Cleanup" campaign began in 1999. The  program focuses on local efforts at beautification where volunteers organize to clean up litter and illegal dumpsites in their communities, remove graffiti, plant trees and flowers and organizing a community garden.

Keep America Beautiful is a highly rated nonprofit, 4-star ranking by independent organization Charity Navigator and is an EarthShare member charity In 2010 the Great American Cleanup annual signature event organized 3.9 million volunteers, more than 5.7 million hours to improve more than 33,700 communities in all 50 states. More than 75 million pounds of litter from landscapes and waterways were collected, more than 15 million pounds of metals and 90 million pounds of newprint were collected. In addition more than 1 million tires and 7 million pounds of electronics were collected as well in the cleanup.

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