STAMFORD, Conn. – The community improvement organization Keep America Beautiful recently released data from its 2020 study on litter in America.
The Keep America Beautiful 2020 National Litter Study provides a comprehensive understanding of the quantity, composition and sources of litter along roads, bodies of water and other areas across the United States.
The organization’s 2020 study is a follow-up to a 2009 study, which builds on a history of science-based litter research started by Keep America Beautiful in 1969, the organization said in a news release. Keep America Beautiful retained the engineering firm Burns & McDonnell to conduct its 2020 study, which consisted of a public attitudes survey, a visible litter survey, a behavioral observations survey and a financial cost of litter survey (ongoing).
Study data reveal litter is down on American roadways by 54% since 2009, according to the news release. However, the study indicated there are still an estimated 50 billion pieces of litter on the ground across the U.S.
For the first time ever, the study provides a valid national estimate of litter along waterways in the U.S. and insights about the relationship between litter in bodies of water and on roads. The study shows that although roadway litter is down by more than 50%, there is slightly more litter along bodies of water.
With the data from the study, Keep America Beautiful said if littering stopped today and waste was properly managed, and every American picked up 152 pieces of litter at the same time, the nation would be free of litter.
“Behavior change is at the root of Keep America Beautiful,” said Keep America Beautiful President and CEO Helen Lowman. “With the unity of Americans to pick up 152 pieces of litter – and ultimately, to stop littering – we can ensure that everyone lives in a clean and litter-free community.”