This is probably a very good move. At some point, the clever marketing behind "Keep America Beautiful" will lose its believability, and people will demand what

This is probably a very good move. At some point, the clever marketing behind "Keep America Beautiful" will lose its believability, and people will demand what the creators behind KAB have been trying to avoid: corporate responsibility for creating less wasteful products. What we have now, in the form of the recycling industry and its associated regulations, are an outsourcing of that responsibility to individual citizens, cities, and states. Regulations in this area need to shift from recycling to sustainability. "KAB downplayed industry's role in despoiling the earth, while relentlessly hammering home the message of each person's responsibility for the destruction of nature, one wrapper at a time. ....KAB was a pioneer in sowing confusion about the environmental impact of mass production and consumption." Then in the 80s the industry faced another challenge; the landfill crises that led to recycling. Heather Rogers writes: "All this eco-friendly activity put business and manufacturers on the defensive. With landfill space shrinking, new incinerators ruled out, water dumping long ago outlawed and the public becoming more environmentally aware by the hour, the solutions to the garbage disposal problem were narrowing. Looking forward, manufacturers must have perceived their range of options as truly horrifying: bans on certain materials and industrial processes; production controls; minimum standards for product durability." "In essence, Keep America Beautiful managed to shift the entire debate about America’s garbage problem. No longer was the focus on regulating production—for instance, requiring can and bottle makers to use refillable containers, which are vastly less profitable. Instead, the “litterbug” became the real villain, and KAB supported fines and jail time for people who carelessly tossed out their trash, despite the fact that, clearly, “littering” is a relatively tiny part of the garbage problem in this country (not to mention the resource damage and pollution that comes with manufacturing ever more junk in the first place). Environmental groups that worked with KAB early on didn’t realize what was happening until years later." https://www.treehugger.com/sustainable-product-design/recycling-is-bullshit-make-nov-15-zero-waste-day-not-america-recycles-day.html https://www.treehugger.com/sustainable-product-design/recycl... http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2006/05/origins-anti-litter-campaigns/ http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2006/05/origins-anti-lit...