Our Eco-Experts chose 10 kids from across Canada to become the Sunlight Green Clean Kids. Meet them and read about their inspiring green ideas and the actions they take to help make the world a better place.
My passion is inspiring children to make a real difference. I’m helping organize an international conference on the environment for kids. I have been giving presentations to students across Canada inspiring them with what other kids are doing for the environment, getting them to talk about their concerns, and helping them get started with ideas of ways to work with other kids and adults so they can make real changes happen.
At my school I created a sustainability club, initiated planting a tree for every student, and started Nakusp becoming a Fair Trade Town, (helping developing countries’ environments by buying their Fair Trade products). I did this by getting other students, administration, the maintenance department, and the community involved. I’m also helping others start a school garden, a school store selling ethical products, and making bike racks to encourage students to cycle.
What I’m doing you Go Green
Right now, my friend and I are writing a cartoon about a superhero named Green Guy. He is always telling people to remember to use the three R’s. In reality, there is no hero, it depends on us. We have to take better care of the earth.
We are always saying “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle,” but what does it really mean? We choose products with less packaging and recycle plastics 1,2,3,4 afterwards. My family also has a composting bin and ends up with nice thick soil at the end of the year.
We are also into reusing things. I always remember, if something can be used again, take that advantage, use it again, and don’t toss it! We enjoy buying local food and last year went on a 10 mile diet where everything we ate for 10 days was grown in Richmond.
Reduce, reuse, recycle. We are the real heroes.
Everything has gone Green!
Yes we can
Yes we will
Yes I am!
Hi, my name is Adam I’m from Calgary, AB and I’m a Greenie in training!
I’ve encouraged my family to make changes, starting from my lunch wrappers and ending with a heat sink we built in our family greenhouse.
At school I participate in a recycling group, I actively recycle my clothing and toys through a Calgary Internet recycling forum. I put as much homework as I can on a memory stick, which saves paper. I actively encourage my school friends to be green, and actively seek new ways to be green myself!
I may be 13, but I can teach you a lot how to be green, if you would like to listen. I can teach you about water conservation, solar dryers, worm composting, gardening and easy things anyone can do to be green!
Thanks for my future!
I have been saving the planet. I help reduce waste at my school. I use a waste-free lunch kit and show others how to reduce and reuse. I helped start a waste free program at my school by helping these kits become available for everyone. The kits have containers in them so kids don’t use plastic bags and wrappers. I made posters and helped with the ordering. We ordered 100 kits! We hope the waste is reduced. We will have people speak about reducing and recycling too.
My mom and I planted an organic vegetable garden. I made signs from rocks, so we didn’t use plastic sticks. I also use recycled plastic, paper and cardboard to make toys. I make houses for my stuffed animals. I still reuse cards and now my grandma does too!
Hi, my name is Hana and these are some of the things I do to go green. Before Calgary brought in the “Blue Bin” recycling, I had bins for all things recyclable. My mom did not know that pudding cups should be recycled. I explained that she should look for items with the recyclable logo in it. Since then, my mom encourages me to take over recycling in our home. I bought my mom a composter for Mother’s Day and together the family got it up and running.
In the future I am hoping to get the Environment Club up and running again at my school and encourage litter-less lunch days. I would like to approach Parent Council to add more bike racks to encourage staff and students alike to bike! I want to ask my principal to ban plastic water bottles. Lastly, I want each graduating class at my school to plant a tree in our tree farm. Imagine the C02 that would be absorbed.
‘What I’m doing and how I’m teaching others in Hamilton to go green”:
My name is Adrian, I’m helping the city of Hamilton, Ontario to “Recycle Right”! This spring, I surveyed adult Hamiltonians to determine if they recycled right. I entered my results at a Science Fair and won gold and an environmental award! If people don’t sort garbage correctly, the environment suffers. My data showed that 76% of the people surveyed don’t know our recycling rules!
Recycling right reduces garbage going to landfills and that decreases pollution from landfills going into the atmosphere. Recycled material is used again rather than wasted. When people sort their garbage and compost it helps to meet Hamilton’s waste diversion goals.
I made a binder with photos of how to sort common garbage and presented my project at an environmental festival in Hamilton. The city’s waste management department took notes and changed their website to make the recycling rules more organized! I continue to promote recycling right at schools and even at breakfast clubs!
Kids Can Move Mountains… of Milk-Cartons!
Last year I became concerned about the waste our school’s milk program created. Roughly 1,000 milk-cartons went into the landfill every two weeks. The Eco-teacher said we couldn’t recycle cartons because the City wouldn’t take them. I called the recycling company but received the same news. That summer my mom and I brainstormed ideas on how to make recycling possible. In September I promoted the environment benefits of recycling milk cartoons around the school. It seemed impossible to have the recycling company collect them so I decided to bring them home for recycling instead.
My next idea was to explain the Eco – Team’s goal to the recycling truck driver. He was supportive as long as the cartoons were rinsed.
I established a group of student volunteers to collect, rinse, and bag cartoons daily. Six months later we have recycled approximately 13,000 milk-cartons. With hard work I moved mountains… of milk-cartons.
We have set up a compost bin to reduce the amount of waste going out with the garbage. We use the compost in our garden and to help with the trees that my dad and I have planted along the river bank to reduce erosion and eventually give additional shade for our house, which will help cool our house.
We plant vegetables that will grow well for our climate and use water from the two rain barrels that collect water from the roof. We have encouraged and helped other families in our neighbourhood to plant their own gardens and recycle and compost their own vegetable waste. We have also helped set up our neighbour water barrels by adjusting the downspouts to catch most of the rain.
What we can’t grow for ourselves, my parents, my sister and I bicycle over to the local Farmers market and purchase locally grown food.
The Earth is a green machine and it’s our job to keep it clean. By recycling, we make our world a better place. I’m going to tell you how I’m making our world better.
Every year, my mom and I help with the road clean-up in Beaverbank. It’s not just regular garbage like people would think. Last year I found a whole boom box with a CD, a car mirror, car tire and even a car door!
Before recycling and composting, my family would put out three bags of garbage a week. Now we put out three bags a MONTH! (…and for most of that I blame the cat, her litter is one whole bag!)
Before I taught my Mom this little rhyme, she thought all plastic was recyclable. It goes “One and Two go in the blue”!! It means plastic with the… and… go into the blue bag. Hope you enjoyed my tale of woe on how people should and how I do recycle.
Hello!
My name is Victor and I am 10 years old. I have blue eyes but when I look at the beautiful greenery, my eyes become green. That is why I am interested in photography. We go with our teachers to take photos of nature. I also took several photos with my family. I helped create an exhibit about waste. My friends and I used waste to create a mural. So I have done my part to reduce litter and waste.
My class and I wrote letters to our regional bank to ask for money so we could buy reusable dishes for our school cafeteria. I also do environmentally friendly actions at home. I walk or ride my bike to school or the grocery store so my parents don’t have to take the car. Every year I donate my clothes and my toys to charity. My family and I eat fruit grown by local farmers.
The end.