Meet Andrew Miller of Keep Pearland Beautiful

Today we’d like to introduce you to Andrew Miller.

Andrew serves as Executive Director and has a B.B.A. from Texas State University with a major in Finance. He began working at Keep Pearland Beautiful (KPB) in 2015 and has effectively transitioned the Recycling Center in Pearland from a city-operated facility to fall under KPB’s management. Andrew served as the Treasurer on the Board of Directors at KPB before accepting the position as Executive Director. He has over 6 years of nonprofit experience and successful financial management of over $500,000 in federal and state grants while working as Chief Financial Officer of another local nonprofit organization.

Has it been a smooth road?
Staying local, living and working, has always been a priority for me. With Pearland’s explosive growth the opportunities for working in Pearland have grown over the past 10 years. Being involved in Keep Pearland Beautiful as a volunteer first, definitely positioned me for gaining employment with the organization when the Executive Director position became open. Two weeks after accepting the job offer, I was called for a meeting with the City Manager, Deputy City Manager and several other department heads. They discussed an opportunity for Keep Pearland Beautiful to assume operations of the Stella Roberts Recycling Center, which had been a city run facility since opening in 2004. After careful consideration and discussions with staff and Board of Directors, we made the decision to accept the offer. Knowing that the recycling center was not financially self-sufficient, we knew the process would not be easy. But, we did not want to see the recycling center close. After operating the recycling center for one and a half years, we all agree that we made the correct decision. The opportunities that we have found beneficial are more control over Pearland’s recycling program, more visibility for KPB and gaining support from new partners. While this process required much stress on all those involved, the end result is a successful business with room for growth. Our goal is for the recycling center to have a balanced budget within the next 5 years.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
The mission of Keep Pearland Beautiful (KPB) is to empower Pearland residents to take responsibility for their environment. The vision of KPB is that Pearland will be the most beautiful city in Texas. KPB is the environmental educator in the city of Pearland, whose focus is on ending littering, increasing landfill diversion and beautifying our community.

Litter is costly to clean up, impacts our quality of life and economic development and eventually ends up in our waterways and ocean. KPB utilizes the Keep America Beautiful Community Appearance Index annually to assess current litter conditions and other indicators. Litter clean-up costs the U.S. more than an estimated $11.5 billion each year and litter reduces home values by 7% or more according to a 2009 Keep America Beautiful study. Ranked as the 15th fastest growing large city in the U.S. according to the U.S. Census Bureau, Pearland has seen new residents flocking in at a rate of 3.8% annually. In 2016 3,710 volunteer hours were spent collecting 22,380 pounds of litter and 20,251 cigarette butts. Our community appearance index showed that Pearland continues to be a slightly littered community with a score of 1.425 (1-4 scale). There were 75 active Adopt-A-Spots and 196 miles of road cleaned.

By educating and engaging individuals to recycle often and recycle right, KPB can help make recycling more economically viable, create jobs and provide recyclables to manufacture new products and packaging. The EPA estimates that 75% of the American waste stream is recyclable, but only 34% is recycled. Pearland has increased its diversion rate from 9-17% in just 4 years, with a goal to meet the national average of 34%. When measuring recycling, KPB tracks the number of residents touched by recycling education (108,223), number of residents at events (7,150), number of recycling center tour attendees (389), customers at the recycling center (26,518) and tons diverted from the landfill at the recycling center (771). All statistics expressed were collected from the 2016 fiscal year.

Each year, we work with hundreds of volunteers on beautification and community greening programs that impact the Pearland community. Studies have shown that communities benefit from more green space, landscaping and trees economically, environmentally and psychologically. For the area of beautification KPB tracks volunteer hours (1,022), trees and shrubs planted (1,874) and pounds of produce donated from the Pearland Community Gardens (539). KPB also hosts monthly garden lectures, where in 2016 there were 273 attendees educated about best gardening practices.

Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Pearland is ranked as the 15th fastest growing large city in the U.S. according to the U.S. Census Bureau. With new residents relocating to Pearland at a rate of 3.8% by population, there is a tremendous amount of growth both residentially and commercially. There are ample opportunities for continued growth. The City continues to fight the struggles of a growing city, including mobility, infrastructure, public safety and quality of life.

Contact Info:

• Address: 5800 Magnolia Rd.,Pearland, TX 77584
• Website: www.mykpb.org
• Phone: 281-489-2795
• Email: info@mykpb.org
• Facebook: facebook.com/keeppearlandbeautiful
• Twitter: twitter.com/kpbpearland
• Yelp: www.yelp.com/biz/stella-roberts-recycling-center-pearland
• Other: pinterest.com/mykpb

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