Keeping Texas a Beautiful Place to Visit

Clean communities boost tourism. More than 180 million people visit Texas every year, with a $40.3 billion impact on the Texas economy. Maybe that’s why 335 towns, cities, and counties in Texas have become affiliates of Keep Texas Beautiful (KTB), in an effort to make their communities more appealing to tourists and potential businesses and residents.

Keep Texas Beautiful designates the title of “affiliate” to qualifying cities and counties that seek to improve their communities through litter prevention, beautification of their environment and waste reduction. Affiliates receive free resources and materials to hold cleanup and beautification events, services and training, and access to other affiliates in the network and state agency partners.

The programs KTB promotes, such as the Great American Cleanup (GAC) and Don’t Mess with Texas Trash-Off, are primarily volunteer-driven. At many cleanups, one hundred percent of the workforce is made up of volunteers. This high rate of volunteerism results in an average of $10 in services returned for every public dollar donated to KTB and its affiliates. Many cities see this return as so beneficial that they make KTB programs part of the city budget.

Terri Cardwell, Director of Keep Lake Jackson Beautiful (KLJB), began as a volunteer for the city fifteen years ago. “Someone needed to coordinate all these activities,” said Cardwell, referring to a myriad of events involving youth, educating citizens, and cleaning up the community. “When [the city] saw the dollar return, they decided to hire me.”

Keep Austin Beautiful (KAB) is a partly city-funded program that utilizes public/private partnership to keep the river city looking its best. “Our community relies on tourism particularly in the downtown/6th street area and keeping it clean is of utmost importance. Our partnership with the Downtown Austin Alliance has helped us achieve this goal,” said KAB Executive Director Irene Krill. The organization also works with elementary through high school students, civic organizations and the University of Texas, to name a few. When asked what makes Austin appealing to tourists, Krill replied, “It's the natural waterways and the beauty of the green areas. We have a community that loves the outdoors and are very much into environmental responsibility.”

The success of KTB affiliates has much to do with the dedication of its directors. Success also stems from programs like the GAC and Trash-Off. KTB provides materials, volunteer incentives and publicity for its affiliates who host these events.

Both Lake Jackson and Austin, along with more than 100 other Texas towns and cities, participate in the nation’s largest annual community improvement program, Keep America Beautiful’s Great American Cleanup (GAC). The GAC involves more than two million volunteers nationwide between March 1 and May 31. People from all walks of life take this time to give back to their communities by painting and repairing houses, building playgrounds, planting trees and flowers, holding land and water cleanups, removing illegal dumpsites, and reducing, reusing, and recycling.

In addition to the hundreds of events that occur nationwide throughout the spring, Texans support the GAC in grand style with the state’s signature event, the Don’t Mess with Texas Trash-Off. This year’s Trash-Off will be held on Saturday, April 5. More than 100,000 Texans are expected to team up to help make our highways more aesthetically pleasing to visitors and natives alike. Adopt-a-Highway groups from the Texas Department of Transportation program will clean thousands of miles of state highway right-of-way, while KTB affiliate volunteers will clean city streets, parks, and other public areas. Many KTB affiliates also participate in the Adopt-a-Highway program and will clean their adopted highway miles during Trash-Off.

Stacy G. Cantu, Executive Director of Keep Texas Beautiful, believes that a beautiful state is directly linked to the success of the state’s tourism industry. “KTB affiliates work year-round to improve their community environments, but the work they do isn’t just about the economic impact that tourism has on our great state. It’s also about taking pride in our home,” said Cantu.

Keep Texas Beautiful, the nonprofit state affiliate of Keep America Beautiful, strives to empower Texans through education to take responsibility for enhancing their community environment. KTB works with volunteers, elected officials, businesses and state and federal agencies to ensure that every Texan has the opportunity to take individual responsibility for making Texas the cleanest, most beautiful state in the nation.

Learn more about Keep Texas Beautiful by calling 1-800-CLEAN-TX.