KATY MAGAZINE NEWS
February 29, 2020
By Jennifer Miko
Keep Katy Beautiful received the 2019 President’s Circle Award at the Keep America Beautiful 2020 National Conference, which recently took place in Memphis, TN. The award recognizes exemplary performance by certified affiliates of Keep America Beautiful for creating clean, green and beautiful communities.
To be considered for the President’s Circle Award, Keep Katy Beautiful (KKB) met the standards of merit of Keep America Beautiful including administering initiatives to end littering, improve recycling and beautify Katy’s community. This recognition was awarded to only 30 communities in Texas.
Since becoming a Keep America Beautiful affiliate in 2000, KKB has won this award over 15 times. In 2018, the group received the Affiliate Award of Excellence from Keep America Beautiful, awarded to only 11 out of 600 KAB affiliates nation-wide.
“As a Keep America Beautiful affiliate, we are continually reminded that we are not in this alone. The support and encouragement that we receive from Keep America Beautiful motivates us to keep striving to provide a clean, beautiful community that people are proud to be from," said Carrie Singletary, KKB Chairman.
Grassroots Efforts
KKB has worked hard as a Keep Texas Beautiful and Keep America Beautiful affiliate to promote a clean, litter free community and educate citizens about recycling, landscaping, tree planting and maintenance, as well as waste reduction. KKB is proud to partner with many student and civic organizations to encourage the mission and goals of these grassroots efforts.
KKB has overseen many local beautification projects including the bronze geese entrance features, Harvest Plaza and the landscaping surrounding our Depot and Caboose.
“We worked with CenterPoint Energy and the Parks & Recreation Department to develop the Katy City Park Arboretum, an educational green space with various species of trees,” says Jess Washburn, Tourism and Marketing Assistant; Affiliate Coordinator for KKB. We created the "Legacy Tree" program which recognizes Katy’s iconic, historic and outstanding trees based on age, size, species, quality, historic association and/or landmark importance.
KKB also provides electronic recycling and paper shredding twice a year, as well as two community garage sales to promote reduce, reuse and recycle.
In 2019, Keep America Beautiful awarded KKB a "Cigarette Litter Prevention Grant" for them to install sidewalk butlers around the City of Katy. The cigarette butts will be collected monthly and sent to a recycle company where they break down the cigarette. Once collected, the cigarettes and packaging are separated by composition and melted into hard plastic that can be remolded to make new recycled industrial products, such as plastic pallets. The ash and tobacco are separated out and composted in a specialized process. Cigarette butts are the most littered item on Earth. For more information click here.
Joining Keep Katy Beautiful
Meetings are held on the second Tuesday of every month at Katy City Hall. There are no dues since this is a City of Katy board. To join the board, members must either live within the city limits, own/work at a business within the city limits or have an expertise through either experience, or special training and education, which align with KKB’s mission.
To learn more about Keep Katy Beautiful, visit their website here, and follow them on Instagramand Facebook.
For the purpose of promoting a clean and litter-free neighborhood, KKB has put in a lot of effort as an affiliate of Keep Texas Beautiful and Keep America Beautiful campaigns. doodle jump