Keep Texas Beautiful

September may be here, but across Texas, the summer heat isn’t exactly letting go. ☀️⁠
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That makes the newest installment ( #11!!) of our Weathering Texas series especially timely.⁠
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Growing up in Laredo, Diana Nuño remembers spending summers outside with her siblings—playing in sprinklers, eating tangerines from her dad’s tree and staying outdoors for hours. As temperatures have risen, she says those familiar routines have become harder to hold onto.⁠
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“As the summers got hotter, those activities just kind of stopped, and we were forced to stay inside.”⁠
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A biology student at Texas A&M International University and former participant in the RGISC Climate Cohort, Diana has helped gather stories about how extreme heat affects Laredo residents and advocate for heat resilience in her community.⁠
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In our latest Weathering Texas story, Diana shares what rising temperatures look like in everyday life—and why listening to local experiences, restoring community spaces and taking action close to home all matter.⁠
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🌡️ Read “Laredo Youth Respond to Rising Temperatures”: https://ktb.org/ktb-blog/laredo-youth-respond-to-rising-temperatures/
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We’re proud to sponsor Nature Unidos at the Trinity River Audubon Center! 🌿

Dallas-area families are invited to this free celebration of Latino culture, conservation, nature and community on Saturday, September 19. Stop by for bilingual nature experiences, guided hikes, food, local vendors and more—and pick up native seeds from Keep Texas Beautiful while supplies last! 🌱

Reserve your free tickets through the link in the original post. We hope to see you there!

✏️ Sharpen your skills — and your lesson plans!⁠
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Whether you’re a classroom teacher, informal educator or just looking for new ways to help young Texans learn about the world around them, we’ve rounded up resources to help you:⁠
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🌿 Find ready-to-use lesson ideas⁠
🔬 Build science and conservation knowledge⁠
💡 Spark hands-on activities⁠
🌎 Connect learning with the outdoors⁠
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Explore our Texas-Inspired Back-to-School Resource Hub and find your next great idea: https://ktb.org/ktb-blog/your-texas-inspired-back-to-school-resource-hub/
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In late August, Keep Texas Beautiful joined H-E-B and community leaders in Columbus to celebrate a $36,000 H-E-B Recycling for Texans Grant awarded to the City of Columbus. ♻️ 🎉⁠
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This investment will support improvements at the Columbus Recycling Center that will expand its capacity, strengthen local recycling infrastructure, and make it easier for residents to recycle in their community.⁠
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We’re grateful to H-E-B for continuing to invest in recycling across Texas and proud to partner with communities like Columbus that are putting those resources to work locally.⁠
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Congratulations to the City of Columbus and Keep Columbus Beautiful! We’re excited to see what comes next. 💚⁠
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Keep Columbus Beautiful Columbus, TX Chamber of Commerce

Congrats on a great year so far Bandera Recycles!!!!!! Thank you to all the volunteers that make this possible ♻🙌

👉👉👉 County Recyclers and recycling volunteers have been busy!!! Over the past 8 months, 75.6 Tons of recyclables were shipped from Bandera County! 👏 That's 151,200 pounds that will NOT go to the landfill.👍 All items collected at our facilities (Mansfield, Lakehills) are 100% recycled into plastic drink bottles, aluminum cans and cardboard boxes! ♻️📦♻️

Thank you residents for recycling and thank you volunteers for getting the job done! 💚🙌💚

Congratulations Columbus!!

Join us in congratulating
the City Of Columbus.

The City of Columbus has been awarded a $36,000
H-E-B Recycling for Texans Grant. ♻️♻️♻️♻️♻️♻️♻️♻️ ♻️♻️♻️♻️♻️

The grant was presented today
by H-E-B in partnership with
KEEP TEXAS BEAUTIFUL.
Thank you HEB & KTB
for your support of recycling in Texas.

The grant funds will help provide improvements to our Columbus Recycling Center,
giving our community
a stronger recycling program.

Columbus Recycling Center is located at 1427 Montezuma Street in Columbus, TX.

We are saddened by the passing of Martha Knies, a founder of Keep Wimberley Beautiful and a beloved leader whose decades of service helped shape the community she called home.

Keep Wimberley Beautiful began in 1991, when Martha and several friends looked outside a local café, saw an area that needed care and realized they were the “somebodies” who could do something about it.

Her legacy is visible across the city—from the Cypress Creek Nature Preserve to the downtown park that bears her name—and in the many people she welcomed and mentored. In 2020, Keep Texas Beautiful was honored to recognize Martha with our Leadership Award for her extraordinary service and impact.

We extend our heartfelt condolences to Martha’s family, friends and the entire Wimberley community. May her example continue to remind all of us what can happen when people decide to care deeply for a place—and become the “somebodies” willing to make it better.

Read more about Martha’s remarkable life and legacy in the Wimberley View. 💚

Martha Knies leaves enduring mark on Wimberley The genesis of Martha Knies’ contributions to Wimberley culture was simple enough. It was 1991 and a group of women were drinking coffee at the Cypress Creek Cafe. They looked

Port Arthur has a new place to recycle! ♻📦

Last week, we celebrated the grand opening of City of Port Arthur's first community recycling drop-off center, which is now accepting corrugated cardboard from residents and local businesses.

Thank you to Mayor Charlotte Moses, Keep Texas Beautiful’s Lou Serna and H-E-B’s Anahí Villarruel for helping us mark this exciting step toward a cleaner, greener Port Arthur.

This center was made possible through the collaboration of so many! Thank you to H-E-B, the City of Port Arthur, the Port Arthur Economic Development Corporation , the@Port Arthur Housing Authority. We’re also grateful to The Solco Group,LLC for its hard work supporting the project! And shout out to DJ Paul Productions for bringing the beats to the celebration! 🎶

We can’t wait to see Port Arthur put this new community resource to use. Let’s recycle, PA! 💚

Great work is happening in communities across Texas! Thank you to the Texas Municipal League for helping spotlight the 2026 Governor’s Community Achievement Award winners and share their inspiring work with municipal leaders across the state—and a special shoutout to our own Lara George for writing this feature!

Read more at the link. ⬇️

Texas Department of Transportation Keep Eden Beautiful Keep San Saba Beautiful Keep Argyle Beautiful Keep Lago Vista Beautiful Keep Ennis Beautiful Keep Duncanville Beautiful Keep Friendswood Beautiful Keep Longview Beautiful Keep Mesquite Beautiful, Inc. Keep Brownsville Beautiful

What do a butterfly trail, a green waste recycling center, student-led litter prevention, and downtown revitalization have in common?
They're all part of the innovative efforts recognized through the 2026 Governor's Community Achievement Awards.
Read how 10 Texas communities are tackling local challenges through creativity, volunteerism, and environmental stewardship in the August issue of Texas Town & City.

https://www.tml.org/583/Texas-Town-City