WHAT WE DO
We run a range of local and national programs, campaigns and services designed to educate and inspire Australians to take action on sustainability and litter.
OUR APPROACH
Strengthen Behaviour Change: Deliver national programs that shift attitudes, reduce single-use plastics, and prevent litter at the source.
Empower Communities: Engage councils, schools, businesses, and volunteers in practical environmental action.
Build Partnerships: Collaborate with government, industry, tourism bodies, and conservation groups to drive systemic change.
Measure What Matters: Provide national litter audits, insights, and data to guide local decision-making.
KAB Week
A National Focus Week for Behaviour Change
Held every August since 1972, Keep Australia Beautiful Week is a national moment to inspire action on waste, litter and biodiversity. KAB Week transforms awareness into measurable community action.
Key Components
• Annual theme focusing on litter, plastics, biodiversity or waste reduction
• Community events: clean-ups, planting days, school programs, business initiatives
• Blogs, resources, social campaigns and media outreach
• Alignment with Landcare Week to promote restoration and habitat protection
• Partnerships with platforms such as Snap Send Solve for reporting litter and dumping
Do The Right Thing
KAB’s Motto, Message & Movement
“Do The Right Thing” is Australia’s most iconic anti-litter message, first launched in the 1980s and still recognised nationwide. Today, it is the central behavioural change brand for all national litter-prevention efforts.
Program Features
• National brand used across KAB campaigns, collateral, schools, events and social media
• Forms the backbone of Keep Australia Beautiful Week
• Embedded in business partnerships encouraging organisations to reduce their plastic footprint
• Reinforced through modern campaigns including A Little Taste of Plastic, 2025
Tidy Towns
Australia’s Longest-Running Community Sustainability Program
Beginning in 1968 in Western Australia, Tidy Towns has grown into a nationwide program celebrating community-driven leadership in sustainability.
Today the Tidy Towns program decentralises environmental action, empowering communities to lead change locally – building pride, celebrating achievement, and inspiring communities to do better every year.
Each State runs its own Tidy Towns Awards, and then State Winners advance to the National Awards, for judging, and a National Winner is announced
National Award Categories Include:
Litter Prevention | Biodiversity Conservation | Plastic Free Communities | Behaviour Change & Engagement | Circular Economy & Waste Reduction | Climate Change Adaptation & Mitigation | Water Conservation & Protection | Liveable Communities | Heritage & Culture | Dame Phyllis Frost Local Hero | Young Legends
Paint Australia Beautiful
Environmental Education Through Creativity
Paint Australia Beautiful engages primary school students in a national mural competition encouraging them to explore themes such as waste reduction, biodiversity, and caring for Country. Every mural becomes a long-lasting symbol of student leadership and environmental pride.
Program Elements
• Runs from February – November annually
• Children design sustainability themes murals (A3 or A4)
• Schools either submit mural designs as individual artworks, or as a merged class / year level submission.
• State-level judging selects a shortlist from the submitted murals, and the public vote on these to determine finalists
• The State Finalists receive paint and supplies to bring their murals to life on a wall within their school.
• Final voting for National People’s Choice Award takes place on social media, and an overall winner is crowned
Contain Your Waste
Gamifying Waste Reduction in Households, Schools & Workplaces
Born from a KAB Week theme and now a standalone national behaviour change program, Contain Your Waste challenges Australians to reduce their weekly waste to the size of a single container.
The challenge turns waste reduction into an achievable, and often competitive, everyday habit.
How It Works
• Participants choose a container (jar, tub, bucket)
• All week, they aim to fit their landfill waste inside it
• Encourages source reduction, reuse, and avoiding single-use plastics
• Promotes creative reuse of soft plastics, repurposing, and responsible disposal
Local Government Litter Audit (LGLA)
National Litter Monitoring & Insights for Councils
The Local Government Litter Audit is KAB’s national standard for litter assessment, providing councils with the comprehensive litter data they need to make informed decisions.
These audits are supported and managed within each State KAB organisation.
Services Include
• Litter hotspot audits
• Brand and material analysis
• Waste behaviour insights
• Tailored local litter management reporting
• Training and upskilling for council staff
