Editing Keep America Beautiful (section)

==Controversies==
[[File:People Start Pollution - 1971 Ad.jpg|thumb|335px|Keep America Beautiful's, now retired, 1971 ad campaign, featuring Italian-American actor [[Iron Eyes Cody]] as the "Crying Indian", has often been described as [[greenwashing]].]]
Keep America Beautiful's actions have been criticized as [[greenwashing]]. The organization's narrow focus on [[Litter in the United States|littering]] and [[recycling]] diverts responsibility away from corporations and industries.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Park |first1=William |title=How companies blame you for climate change |url=https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20220504-why-the-wrong-people-are-blamed-for-climate-change |work=BBC News |date=May 5, 2022 |language=en}}</ref>

Despite self-identifying as having [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] ancestry with the stage name of [[Iron Eyes Cody]], Espera Oscar DeCorti was of Italian descent.<ref name="Orion 2008">{{cite magazine |last=Strandis |first=Ginger |date=2008 |title=The Crying Indian |url=https://orionmagazine.org/article/the-crying-indian/ |magazine=Orion Magazine}}</ref> This sparked accusations of [[cultural appropriation]] and [[racial stereotyping]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Reid |first=Darren R. |date=October 31, 2018 |title=Elizabeth Warren, the Pipe Bomber and why so many white Americans claim Native ancestry |url=http://theconversation.com/elizabeth-warren-the-pipe-bomber-and-why-so-many-white-americans-claim-native-ancestry-105932 |access-date=2022-06-13 |website=The Conversation |language=en}}</ref> In February 2023, the Keep America Beautiful organization transferred ownership of the ad's copyright to the [[National Congress of American Indians]], who intend to restrict use of the ad to only historical purposes.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/rights-crying-indian-ad-native-american-group-97467712 | title = Rights to 'Crying Indian' ad to go to Native American group | first = Terry | last = Tang | date = February 25, 2023 | accessdate = February 25, 2023 | agency = [[Associated Press]] | via = [[ABC News (United States)|ABC News]] }}</ref>

Heather Rogers, creator of the 2005 documentary film ''Gone Tomorrow. The Hidden Life of Garbage'' and book of the same name,<ref name="altn1" /> classifies Keep America Beautiful as one of the first [[greenwashing]] corporate fronts. She asserts that the group was created in response to Vermont's 1953 attempt to legislate a mandatory deposit to be paid at point of purchase on [[disposable|disposable beverage containers]] and banning the sale of beer in non-refillable bottles.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20170424091418/http://toolkit.bottlebill.org/opposition/KABhistory.htm "Keep America Beautiful: A History"],
toolkit.bottlebill.org.</ref><ref>Wilkins, Matt, [https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/more-recycling-wont-solve-plastic-pollution/ "More Recycling Won't Solve Plastic Pollution"], Scientific American blog, July 6, 2018. Retrieved 2018-07-10.</ref>

Keep America Beautiful's narrow focus on litter, and its characterization of litter as a consumer created problem, is seen as an attempt to divert an [[extended producer responsibility]] from the industries that manufacture and sell [[disposable product]]s to consumers who improperly dispose of the non-returnable wrappers, filters, and beverage containers.<ref name="altn1">{{cite web |url=http://www.alternet.org/environment/21651 |title=Litterbug World |access-date=2008-05-20 |author=Ariane Conrad Hyde |date=2005-04-01 |publisher=[[AlterNet]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130115003620/http://www.alternet.org/story/21651/litterbug_world|url-status=dead|archive-date=2013-01-15}}</ref>

[[Elizabeth Royte]], author of ''Garbage Land'', describes Keep America Beautiful as a "masterful example of corporate greenwash", writing that in contrast to its anti-litter campaigns, it ignores the potential of recycling legislation and resists changes to packaging.<ref>''Garbage Land'' page 184</ref>

The [[tobacco industry]] developed programs with Keep America Beautiful that focused on cigarette litter solutions acceptable to the industry such as volunteer clean-ups and ashtrays, in lieu of [[smoking ban]]s at parks and beaches.<ref name="BMJ1">{{cite journal |last1=Smith |first1=Elizabeth A. |last2=McDaniel |first2=Patricia A. |date=March 2011 |title=Covering their butts: responses to the cigarette litter problem |journal=Tobacco Control |volume=20 |issue=2 |pages=100–106 |url= |publisher=BMJ Publishing Group Ltd |doi=10.1136/tc.2010.036491|pmid=20966130 |pmc=3209806 }}</ref> The tobacco industry has funded Keep America Beautiful<ref name="BMJ1"/> and similar organizations internationally.<ref name="Ambio1">{{cite journal |last1=Wallbank |first1=Lucinda A. |last2=MacKenzie |first2=Ross |last3=Beggs |first3=Paul J.|date=April 2017 |title=Environmental impacts of tobacco product waste: International and Australian policy responses |journal=Ambio |volume=46 |issue=3 |pages=361–370 |pmid=27844421 | pmc=5347528 |doi=10.1007/s13280-016-0851-0}}</ref>