The Araguaia River is one of the biggest rivers in Brazil. It is home to thousands of animals. River dolphins swim and play in the water, and there are many different colored fish.

In one town, a 13-year-old boy named Rhenan walks along the river every day. But looking at the river makes him worry because there is rubbish everywhere. He sees plastic bottles, old clothing, and empty food packages. The water looks dark and ugly.

One day Rhenan asked about the dirty river at school. “You wouldn’t want rubbish in your house,” said his teacher. “Think about the poor animals!” For days, Rhenan couldn’t stop thinking about the river. It doesn’t seem right to him that this big and powerful river is filled with rubbish. “It’s hurting the animals in my area,” he thought. “And it’s also hurting the families who live here.” Then Rhenan had an idea.

The next morning, Rhenan talked to his mother about his plan for the river. He wanted to go around his town and ask for everyone’s help. Maybe if they all worked together, they could clean up the river!

Rhenan’s mother loved his idea. “I believe the most important thing for you, Rhenan, is learning how to change things that you care about. That will stay with you forever.” She said. She told him she would help him along the way.

The next day, Rhenan went to the police department and next to the office of the Mayor (市长). He visited offices, businesses, and other schools. Soon he had a very big group of people who like his idea! They all decided to meet at the river the following week. On the day of the river clean-up, Rhenan was excited—but he was also nervous. What if no one showed up? But when he and his mother arrived, there were almost a hundred people there, including many of Rhenan’s friends.       

3 . Unless you’ve been faithfully bringing reusable shopping bags to the store, you probably grab the plastic bags waiting for customers at the checkout. You’re not alone.

About 100 billion plastic bags are used in the U. S. each year. Unfortunately, single-use plastic bags have serious consequences once our trip to the store is over. Less than 10% of plastic bags used in the U. S. are recycled, leaving the rest to end up in landfills (垃圾填埋场), and polluting soil, oceans and other natural habitats.

To fight pollution and other environmental problems, major companies are taking steps to get rid of the use of plastic shopping bags. If you’re a frequent customer at Walmart, don’t be surprised if you notice the plastic bags disappearing over the next few months. Last summer, Walmart announced its goal to be a zero-waste company — meaning no more plastic bags.

But Walmart has announced its Beyond the Bag, an initiative (倡议) working to explore reusable options and “reimagine” the plastic bag. Target and CVS are also on board as founding partners of Beyond the Bag, and so far, the three brands have invested $15 million to come up with a brand-new bag design.

The initiative also started the Beyond the Bag challenge, giving innovators (创新者) a chance to share their ideas. The challenge ran throughout the summer of 2020, and nine winners from over 450 submissions were selected. From a station supplying reusable bag in-store to a new and improved paper bag, the winning designs cover a lot of bases. Each product now has the chance to be tested with funding from the initiative.

While a final replacement for plastic bags at Walmart has yet to be decided, there’s a more sustainable future on the horizon. And if you want to start reducing your use of plastic bags right now, check out our list of reusable bags to bring on your next shopping trip.

5 . You may have visited antique stores and found cutting-edge goods in second-hand furniture stores, but have you ever stooping? On the streets of big cities at night, some young people are “looking for something”. Obsessed with the spiritual core of the old thing recycling, they fell in love with it. But what exactly is stooping?

In fact, this English word originally meant “bending over”, and now refers to a way of life of picking up discarded items and renovating and recycling old things, which originally emerged in New York and other foreign big cities.

Since the beginning of last year, the trend of “stooping” has spread to many big cities in China and many young people look for second-hand items such as discarded furniture on the streets, take home and repurpose them with a new look. In order to make the flow of information better, some “stoopers” have also built communities where group members can share “treasures” on the street with each other.

Mikiko, 27, is reportedly one of the first people in China to get involved in practicing stooping. At first, she posted online things that people no longer use, want to throw away, or exchange at home, and slowly hundreds of messages flooded in and since then, stooping has become more and more popular among young people. Mikiko admitted that she was surprised that the concept has become a hit on social media, as older generations often stigmatize picking up things from the street or using second-hand goods. “People like my mom consider stooping as’rubbish-picking’, and people will be looked down upon by doing this.” She even created an app called “Grecycle” where people can give away or take unwanted items for free, hoping people may realize that stooping can also be about doing good and helping others.

This generation of young people has given “new life” to old things, practiced social responsibility in their own environmentally friendly ways in life, and also contributed to the circular economy and sustainable society.

6 . It took a wave of water full of plastic crashing over Babacar Thiaw as he went out to sea for him to decide to act. By the time his surfboard had carried him back to Virage beach on the north shore (岸) of Senegal’s capital, Dakar, Thiaw had a plan to make use of the surfing community he had built there.

Within a year he had turned Copacabana Surf Village, which he founded with his father two decades ago, into a center for young Senegalese eco-surfers, where he organizes beach cleans, environmental courses for children and runs Senegal’s first zero-waste restaurant.

Thiaw grew up in a fishing village near the beach, and the Copacabana Surf Village’s foundations (地基) were laid by his fisher father, who after a day’s work would head to Virage beach to surf on a wooden board. They worked hard to turn the Village into a business by renting out surfboards and later offering lessons with the help of visiting overseas surfers.

It is now a popular surfing location, attracting tourists. It’s also a place where Thiaw teaches young Senegalese how to surf and care for the ocean they spend so much time in.

“When we come to the water to surf, we can see how much plastic is ending up here and it disturbs (使烦恼) us,” says Mohammed Sarr, 17, who Thiaw taught to surf. Sarr says he has become more aware of how he uses and deals with plastic because he and his family, who live near the sea, are directly affected.

Thiaw says there was doubt about the plastic-free initiative (倡议), with diners questioning whether it was healthy for him to be serving water in reusable glass bottles. But he stresses that everyone needs to understand the requirement to change .“ Once the environment is getting worse, you and your family and friends will surely suffer,” he says.

8 . “I knew that the Just Go Zero project could bring many advantages,” says Emmanoui l Antonios Fotaras, one of 745 residents living on Tilos, a small Greek island located between Rhodes and Kos, “but I didn’t expect its effect would be so powerful.” Now Tilos has become the world’s first zero-waste island.

The changes have been big. Before the project began, the island sent 87 percent of its waste to landfill (垃圾填埋厂); now the project has proved such a success that the island no longer has any rubbish bins and the landfill site has closed completely. In its place is the Centre for Creative Upcycling, where items can either be repaired or reused.

The project was controlled and paid for by Polygreen, a Greek company that specializes in circular economy solutions, but much of their success came through education.

They began by setting up an information center in the port so residents could learn about how to sort their waste. Each household was then given its own zero-waste equipment, including boxes for recyclable and non-recyclable waste and a bag for organic waste. Regular door-to-door collections were then arranged across the island. A smartphone app collected real-time information to show Polygreen how much had been recycled. All waste is taken to the 3K Circular Innovation Centre,which is equipped with high-tech waste handling solutions that can further sort and direct rubbish towards recycling or composting (制成堆肥).

Any visitors to the island have to take part in the project as well. Hotels have special equipment for separating rubbish and tourists can pick up cloth bags for shopping from the Zero Point Information Centre.

“In the beginning, it was tiring,” says Fotaras, “but we all helped each other until we mastered it. I am amazed how old people like the idea of no rubbish and how the project benefits the environment — and that gives me hope and courage to do it.”