KOB x OUSD x The Illuminaries: Waste Prevention Artwork
One of Keep Oakland Beautiful’s strategic priorities is to provide educational resources for our community. In 2025, KOB began a partnership with Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) to create engaging art that encouraged proper waste disposal across schools. Teaming up with the The Illuminaries, a local collective of professional street art muralists and graphic artists, the goal was to to create clearer signage that helps students, staff, and visitors understand where different types of waste belong.
A year of collaboration led to the artwork unveiling that welcomed students into the Fall 2026 school year. As a result, over 30,000 students now have new custom-made art displayed in their cafeterias and across school grounds.
Everyday waste signage has been transformed into a bold work of public art that makes it easier to compost, recycle, and reduce landfill waste. Worn-out waste station stickers were replaced with bold, graffiti-inspired designs that help make daily choices easier and enhance waste prevention messaging across OUSD schools. Practically, these bright colors and engaging art pieces make the waste bins easier to identify, with pictures that are easy to understand. This encourages people of all age groups to pause and sort their waste thoughtfully, while helping make OUSD spaces more useful, engaging, and alive.The new Landfill, Compost, and Recycle stickers are bringing color, clarity, and mural inspiration to OUSD — public art with an effective call to action.
We are honored to have worked with partners at OUSD’s Waste Prevention Team and artists at The Illuminaries in promoting thoughtful community impact through local collaboration.
Together, we are helping to build lifelong habits that protect our environment and inspire the next generation of environmental stewards. Keep an eye out, you may see this artwork across more Oakland locations!
The artwork placed on waste receptacles across OUSD school grounds.
An in-depth look at each design created by The Illuminaries.