Three Ways to Reduce Your Environmental Impact: Back to School: Hilliard Edition
July 22, 2022
Book Review: Can I Recycle This? A Guide to Better Recycling and How to Reduce Single-Use Plastics
August 22, 2022
Over the past several years, a few articles have been written referencing Keep Hilliard Beautiful (or Keep
Hilliard Clean & Green), but no introduction nor background was ever detailed so here’s a proper
introduction!
Keep Hilliard Beautiful (KHB) is an affiliate of Keep America Beautiful (KAB). KAB is the largest
community improvement organization in the country, and was founded in 1953 by a group of
businessmen from the beverage and packaging industries because of their concern about the growing
problem of litter. Do you remember “Old Iron Eyes”??? He was on one of the earliest public service
announcements (PSA) on tv that showed the Native American with a tear in his eye as he witnessed a
carload of people tossing garbage out of their car window. It was a very powerful commercial about the
litter problem.
Most states then have a state affiliate of KAB. Ohio’s KOB was founded in 1979. And Ohio has well over
40 local affiliates. In 2017, the City of Hilliard’s City Council asked the Environmental Sustainability
Commission (ESC) to investigate Hilliard becoming an affiliate. The name “Keep Hilliard Beautiful” was
actually used as a local PAC, so the name “Keep Hilliard Clean & Green” was used instead. (In 2022, the
PAC agreed to relinquish the name “Keep Hilliard Beautiful”; now Keep Hilliard Beautiful is the group’s
proper name and in line with other affiliates). The ESC registered the city as an affiliate and conducted
several activities to keep the affiliation active, primarily the Litter Index which entails auditing a set
route of city streets, determining the level of litter seen by the roadside. We have completed 3 Litter
Index audits so far (none in 2020 or 2021 due to COVID). Overall our Litter Index numbers are low, but
they have been increasing gradually.
In 2021, the ESC decided to solicit a Board of Directors to give KHC&G more visibility and to generate
more activities. A wonderfully diverse group of people applied from the Hilliard area, and now KHB has
a passionate Board of Directors who are working towards the three key KAB goals.
The three key goals of KAB, KOB, and KHB: 1) End littering by reducing litter year on year, 2) Improve
recycling in America, and 3) Beautifying America’s communities. These goals are accomplished by
inspiring and educating citizens to take action every day to change their behavior and to actively help
with these goals. Since the Board was created in 2021, there have been 11 events, primarily litter
collections. Almost 300 people have joined in these events, totally almost 600 hours of volunteering.
Almost 3000 pounds of litter have been picked up and properly disposed or recycled. And at the Scioto
Run Nature Trail, there have been over 2300 volunteer hours removing invasive species!
KHB has 4 more events scheduled for 2022. They are monthly and are at various locations around
Hilliard. We always need more volunteers and businesses willing to collaborate with our events.
Join our mailing list or contact us by email at KHB@hilliardohio.gov. Follow us on Instagram or LinkedIn
to learn more about opportunities to take action with KHB, and use #KeepHiliardBeautiful to share your
cleanup and beautification efforts with us and the Hilliard community. You can also find us on
gogreenhilliard.com and gogreenhilliard on Facebook.
Melissa Muth is Vice-Chair of the Environmental Sustainability Commission and Vice-Chair of KHB.
