Concerned about the amount of litter on the streets in Britain in 1954, the Women’s Institute under the National Chair, Elizabeth Lady Brunner, passed a resolution to Keep Britain Tidy.
In 1955 the Women’s Institute met together as the Keep Britain Tidy Group for the first time. Keep Britain Tidy became an independent organisation in 1961 and received its first official government funding.
1969 saw the introduction of the international tidyman for the first time in Britain, previously used by Keep America Beautiful. In 1987 the organisation decided to drop 'Keep' from their name due to the fact that it was believed Britain was no longer a tidy country and therefore could not be 'kept' that way. The organisation became the Tidy Britain Group.
In 1996 the then Director General of the Tidy Britain Group, was asked by Government to form Going for Green following the Rio Earth Summit. As a result of this dual role ENCAMS was formed in 2001 as the umbrella brand that brought these two organisations together. The name ENCAMS was intended to be used as a business to business brand only with Keep Britain Tidy remaining the public facing message, however, ENCAMS failed to empower and gain recognition and a change was needed.
In June 2009 we changed our organisation name back to Keep Britain Tidy. We have a new look logo to move the organisation forward and highlight the wider range of related issues we tackle to improve local environments - not just litter.
As a charity we have kept the development costs to a minimum using free advice and existing research.
The tidyman has been removed from our corporate logo but instead will be used during work on litter related issues along with the line ‘Let’s keep it tidy!’.
It is our aim to significantly raise the profile of Keep Britain Tidy and create cleaner, greener places. We believe that this returning to the brand everyone knows and loves will help us to do just that.