Our Mission

Keep Toledo/Lucas County Beautiful is dedicated to establishing greener communities through environmental education, litter prevention, and voluntary partnerships.

Our History

Keep Toledo/Lucas County Beautiful, Inc. is a local non-profit 501 (C) (3) organization dedicated to improving recycling, litter prevention, and neighborhood beautification. Keep Toledo/Lucas County Beautiful provides educational outreach programs to all sectors of the community as well as implements programs involving litter prevention and collection, improving recycling habits, waste reduction, and minimizing the impact of waste.

Keep Toledo/Lucas County Beautiful is the local affiliate of Keep America Beautiful, Inc. (KAB). KAB is a national, nonprofit public education organization dedicated to improving waste handling practices in America. KAB has nearly 700 community affiliates in 22 states who represent over 65% of the total U.S. population. Both the City of Toledo (certified in 1981) and Lucas County (certified in 1988) are KAB Affiliates under Keep Toledo/Lucas County Beautiful. 

Because of the connection and long standing relationship that Keep Toledo/Lucas County Beautiful has with Lucas County and the City of Toledo, these two entities support our organization. Additional consistent funders include Owens Illinois and The Andersons. General fundraising efforts completed each year also support our Operating Budget and any Special Projects that we undertake.

The current Executive Director of Keep Toledo/Lucas County Beautiful took over towards the end of 2018. In addition to the Executive Director, Keep Toledo/Lucas County Beautiful also employees an Education Specialist, Community Engagement Specialist, and utilizes hundreds of volunteers.

Annually we estimate that Keep Toledo/Lucas County Beautiful:

• Distributes over 9000 bags, 4500 pairs of gloves, 275 safety vests, and 800 litter tongs to community groups and volunteers for litter cleanups.
• Provides events with 3500 boxes for garbage or recycling collection.
• Oversee litter cleanups on 20 Adopted Streets throughout Lucas County.
• Provides recycling and composting services at events such as Jeep Fest, the ProMedica Concert Series, the Glass City Marathon and many more. These efforts result in diverting an estimated 12 tons annually from the landfill, to be recycled or composted instead.
• Helps residents recycle items not allowed in normal recycling, including candy wrappers, campaign signs, Styrofoam, boat wrap, clothing, and pumpkins. Through these initiatives, we divert nearly 25,000 lbs annually from the landfill (or as contamination in recycling totes) to specialized recyclers/composters.
• Educates 5000 individual annually through direct programming on how to recycle correctly and implement other sustainable practices.

COVID-19 has impacted many of these initiatives, but has not slowed us down. In 2021 we launched a new competitive, summer long, litter reduction initiative, the Toledo Litter League. In the first year, this program had 32 active teams that collected an estimated 26,550lbs of litter from our neighborhoods, parks, and streets.

These continue to be unprecedented times.  Since COVID, household waste has increased by as much as 30% and the littering of facemasks, gloves, and other PPE is rampant. Our mission is as relevant now as it has ever been.