You CAN make a difference by recycling. You can get others involved in saving the Earth by starting a club of your own. You could also gather your friends and classmates to share new ideas and spread the recycling message to others. Here are some ideas on activities you can do together:

• take a field trip to a recycling center to learn what happens to your recyclables after they’re collected;

• dedicate a couple of days to cleaning a beach or park;

• organize a neighborhood recycling day;

• adopt a small area in your neighborhood that you keep cleaned up;

• make environmental pledges like pledging to never litter;

• or plan a workshop to teach others about recycling.

What are some of the things you’re doing as a class or at home to help save the Earth? Here are some stories about the things kids are doing to protect the environment.

From Heather Polanco
Riverside, CA

I read this book Kid Heroes. This book made me think about the earth. One day we went to the beach and it was really dirty, so my mother and I started cleaning it up. Since that day, everytime we go to the beach we clean up!

From Ulises Alderete
Ontario, CA

I just wanted to say hi and that since I joined the RecyCool club, I have recycled a lot! In one week I recycled at least 2-3 recycle bins filled with recyclables!
 

From Donnice Calloway
Union City, CA

I don't just throw things away, I usually try to make something out of it first. Once I made a piggy bank out of a two-liter soda bottle!
 

From Nancy Bautista
Bell, CA

I told my friends that it is very cool to recycle and you help the Earth at the same time. Last Saturday I saw a kid throw a candy wrapper on the ground. I told him that if you throw litter all over the place; soon the whole world is going to have litter all over. Then he went back and picked up the wrapper. If we all pick up after ourselves, we could really help the Earth.

From Jonathan Lindsay
Polluck Pine, CA

When I first became a club member, I started to recycle my cans, not for the money but for the Earth. If everyone in the world started to recycle, then the next generation of kids will have a beautiful and wonderful Earth. Just think, if no one recycled, landfills would overflow; rivers, lakes and oceans would be polluted; streets would be filled with garbage and houses would be a mess. I think that recycling is the coolest thing that ever happened to me.
 

From Quynh Nguyen
Garden Grove, CA

My school recycles cans for money. I encourage my family and friends to recycle as much as they can. One week later, they told me that recycling was their hobby. They're all Earth Savers.

From Francisco Gonzalez
Buena Park, CA

I think your club is really great. It's cool because people learn that we get all kinds of great things from recycling beverage containers. For example, we get new playground equipment, cans, glass cups, jars, glass bottles and even new clothes. Imagine if we didn't recycle. The world would be a mess and we wouldn't be able to make all these things. I think that, as members, we should share the recycling information that we learn from Recycle Rex with others. If everybody did this, they would know how to take care of Mother Earth and how important it is to recycle. So like Recycle Rex says, "Recycle, reduce, reuse and close the loop".

From Heather Polanco
Riverside, CA

My class has a box for paper recycling and one for pencils or other things that can be reused. I collect cans and recycle them. I love to recycle, not for money, but so the world will be a better place to live.

From India Z. Osman
Los Angeles, CA

I started a recycling chart which tells how many things I recycle within a month. The month that has the most will be my lucky month.

From Jessica Agbonkpolo
Chino, CA

My brother, some friends and I started a club called T.W.R.C. It stands for The Working Recycling Club. We take our aluminum cans and bottles to the recycling center every other Sunday. My friends and I go to the beach and pick up trash.

From Cassandra Smith
Montone, CA

When school started, I found these items made of recycled materials: backpack, pencils, paper, dividers, folders, notecards, bookmark and an eraser.

If you or your class is doing something to help save the Earth, we'd like to know about it. Perhaps we'll include it on our Web Site to share with other RecyCool Club members.

Our mailing address is:

RecyCool Club
Department of Conservation
801 K Street, MS 17-01
Sacramento, CA 95814