Since 1953 the Keep America Beautiful (KAB) Foundation works with partners and affiliates nationwide to fulfill its three-fold mission to End Littering, Improve Recycling and Beautify America’s Communities.

KAB’s Great American Cleanup program celebrates it 20th anniversary in 2018, and as the nation’s largest community improvement program, is active in approximately 20,000 communities. In 2017, nearly 5 million volunteers in those communities collected 186 million pounds of litter and debris.

This year, Dow Chemical Company and the Foundation will award $100,000 in grants to municipalities, nonprofits, materials recovery facilities and other qualifying organizations who apply by the June 15, 2018 deadline.

Access grant applications at https://www.kab.org/sites/default/files/program-resources/Hefty%20EnergyBag%20Grant%20Application.docx.

Dow will facilitate planning and implementation of Hefty^® Energy Bag^™ programs. The company will provide a blueprint for program development to grant recipients who will manage the programs locally with involvement from key community stakeholders.

Through these grants, plastics that cannot be recycled, such as chip bags and juice pouches, are diverted from landfills and converted into valuable energy resources.

Keep America Beautiful has “600 state and local affiliates, millions of volunteers, and the support of corporate partners, social and civic service organizations, academia, municipalities and government officials.”

To learn more about it, to become an affiliate, and to donate, go to kab.org, or Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.

Affiliates include states like Georgia and Virginia, and cities like San Diego and Stamford, where projects range from planting trees and edibles, cleanups by kids and adults from 9 to 90, even recycling used bottle caps into works of art.

KAB’s resource page, https://www.kab.org/resources, includes youth resources, information and how-to’s on recycling, a model anti-littering ordinance, graffiti prevention guides for homeowners, businesses and a teacher’s guide as well as a report on how to create a community mural.

Keeping America beautiful is a privilege and responsibility that benefits when everyone participates in some way great or small, actively or by donating to the very worthy cause.