Annual Keep Austin Beautiful Event Restores Austin’s Environment

Volunteers scattered all across Austin holding trash bags filled with litter earlier this year in April as they united for a common purpose on an early Saturday morning: to restore Austin’s environment. 

This citywide day of service was the result of Keep Austin Beautiful’s biggest annual event, where volunteers restored the city’s nature by cleaning up trash polluting more than 130 cleanup locations.

Beginning in 1985, the event is meant to signify the importance of Earth Month in April and is now in its 39th year. This year, over 3,000 people collected more than 21 tons of trash and recyclables across the 148 location projects in 10 council districts in Austin. 

Rani Loyal, one of the leaders with Keep Austin Beautiful, stationed at Lady Bird Lake, mentioned how they hope the people volunteering truly see the reality of how much trash is left behind all the time. 

“That's something I didn't realize until I did a beach cleanup years ago,” Loyal said. “And [I] was just like, I'm never using a single serve plastic water bottle ever again. This is horrible, the number of water bottles I pulled out of this beach.”

Since then, Loyal has never used a single serve water bottle again. She recalls one day at a beach cleanup when she pulled a heavy, rusty railroad spike from the sand. On multiple occasions, she’s even seen bright green Lime scooters pulled out of the water by volunteers. 

Outside of her work with Keep Austin Beautiful, she works for Heavy Hauler Outdoor Gear and Whole Earth Provision Company.

“Working in that industry for over a decade has kind of made me more aware of what's going on around us as for protecting the environment, taking care of it, and making sure it's clean,” Loyal said.

This April, she had about 30–40 volunteers at her station by the water near Austin High School. 

While some were on the waterways in their boats and others walking along the shoreline, everybody was seemingly picking up a never-ending amount of food wrappers, plastic bottles, plastic bags, and even cigarette buds. 

“I live here too, so I want everything to look nice,” Loyal said. “[Keep Austin Beautiful gives] me a chance to organize as many people as I [can] to try to help keep Austin clean.”

As a service organization, Keep Austin Beautiful strives to inspire and educate all Austinites to volunteer together, beautify green spaces, clean waterways and reduce waste every day.

“Volunteering is such a great opportunity to meet new people,” Rodney Ahart, the CEO of Keep Austin Beautiful, said. “It's also a great opportunity to learn about new issues and topics in areas that you may not have a lot of personal knowledge in.”

Last year, Austin Keep Beautiful had 126 different sites across the Austin area with over 2,000 volunteers. They contributed a total of over 5,000 hours and were able to remove 17 tons of litter and cleaned 113 miles of roadways and creeks. 

Raghav Singh, a first-year finance major at the University of Texas at Austin, had the opportunity to volunteer for this year’s event with his student organization, the Texas Iron Spikes. 

“I enjoy community service, and since the event was through my organization, I got to hang out with my friends while doing it,” Singh said. 

He volunteered to clean on Guadalupe Street, Martin Luther King Street and all the way to Dean Keaton Street. Singh emphasized how convenient it was to be able to volunteer near campus. For them, it’s important for people to attend these clean-ups as everyone has a responsibility to maintain, beautify, and restore our public spaces. 

“Don't depend on others to take action [as] even taking small steps individually can lead to big changes,” Singh said. 

Another student, Ximena Fuentes, a first-year neuroscience major at UT, volunteered at Pecan Creek Park with the organization Latinx Health Professions. 

“I just wanted to spend some time not focusing on finals. Plus, it was early in the morning, so it was a nice refresher,” Fuentes said. 

With Keep Austin Beautiful, volunteers allow the city’s features to strengthen as Austin’s nature is in good hands. Anyone including individuals, roommates, student groups or community groups can sign up as all tools and supplies are provided. 

“If you're looking for an opportunity to volunteer, then Keep Austin Beautiful is a great place for you to start,” Ahart said.