What Do Trees and Litter Have to Do With Climate Week?
How Keep America Beautiful’s work in cleaning and greening communities is helping America cope with a changing climate
– A Blog by Jennifer Lawson, President and CEO of Keep America Beautiful
Litter isn’t just an eyesore—it’s a serious problem for our planet, affecting the health of all living things, including us. When it isn’t cleaned up, it often ends up in our rivers, lakes, and oceans, where it harms the ecosystems that are vital to keeping our planet healthy. These ecosystems are important for reducing the effects of a changing climate. When they’re damaged, the negative effects spread widely.
Take plastic waste, for example. When left to break down, it doesn’t just disappear—it releases harmful gases like methane, which NASA identifies as the second-largest contributor to climate warming after carbon dioxide. Plastic waste in the oceans also harms marine life and reduces the ocean’s ability to absorb carbon dioxide, which worsens climate change.
Cleaning up litter and promoting better waste management is critical to keeping these important ecosystems in good working order. In the past five years alone, Keep America Beautiful affiliates and volunteers have cleaned up 300,000 miles of roads, 2 million acres of parks and public land, and nearly 80,000 miles of waterways—roughly equivalent to 30 Mississippi Rivers.
We’re also committed to improving recycling rates to lessen the impact of waste on the environment. Recycling helps reduce carbon emissions by lowering the need for energy-intensive processes like manufacturing and transportation. It also reduces demands on landfills and even creates green jobs.
But despite most American households having access to recycling, recycling rates remain low at around 32%, says the EPA, and are down from a high of 35% in 2017. The drop is due to many factors including confusion about how to recycle, and misperceptions about the value of recycling. With support from our corporate partners, Keep America Beautiful is leading new research to figure out how to reverse this trend.
Trees, shrubs and flowers not only make communities look nicer they reduce carbon emissions. The Arbor Day Foundation says a single mature tree can absorb more than 48 pounds of carbon dioxide each year. Since 2019, Keep America Beautiful has planted 306,000 trees, enough to supply oxygen to 41,000 Americans.
Trees clean the air and help cool our cities by creating urban canopies, reducing the demand for energy to power air conditioners. Wherever possible, we’re planting mature, native trees which provide shade while boosting local biodiversity that is increasingly threatened by changing climate. Trees also help with stormwater runoff, which is becoming more important as intense storms and extreme weather events increase in frequency. And new research points to overall health benefits for people living in areas with more trees.
Supporting the creation of community gardens is making a difference by providing greater access to locally grown produce, reducing the carbon footprint from transportation, and promoting eco-friendly gardening practices. These gardens also support bees, butterflies, and other pollinators, which are threatened by land-use and climate change.
None of this would be possible without the dedication of millions of Keep America Beautiful volunteers and our 750 community-based affiliates. When they clean up litter, plant trees, and improve their communities, they create a sense of environmental responsibility that influences others. This collective action drives real change and shows that when we work together, we can tackle big challenges and create cleaner, greener spaces for everyone.
Keep America Beautiful has always believed that everyone–business, government and individuals—have a role to play protecting our environment and America’s natural beauty. Through our long history of public awareness and educational campaigns, we’ve laid the foundation for lasting change, encouraging actions that reduce waste, save resources, and promote sustainability.
At our 2024 Power of Beauty Celebration tonight, we’ll honor businesses for their commitment and innovations in environmental stewardship. Our 2024 Power of Beauty Award honorees—Diageo, Cox Enterprises, TerraCycle, and United Airlines—are setting new standards with their innovative and sustainable practices. Their leadership shows that corporate involvement is key to driving progress.
I’m incredibly proud that our work is helping people across the country lead healthier, safer, and more beautiful lives. And I can promise that from picking up litter to planting trees, Keep America Beautiful will continue to make our communities more beautiful, while strengthening our planet’s ability to adapt to a changing climate. Through our engagement with volunteers and corporate partners, we’re helping to build a healthier, more sustainable future for all. Personally, I can’t think of anything more beautiful than that!
About Keep America Beautiful®:
Keep America Beautiful, the nation’s leading community improvement nonprofit organization, inspires and educates people to take action every day to improve and beautify their community environment. Established in 1953, Keep America Beautiful strives to end littering, improve recycling, and beautify America’s communities. Join us on Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Donate and take action at kab.org.
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McCall Vrydaghs
Keep America Beautiful®