1 . The first year of Beth Walker's quest for a zero-waste lifestyle, the rubbish in her life wouldn't have filled a wastepaper basket. But now she's stopped keeping track.

Her journey began after a talk by eco-group The Rubbish Trip in 2017. Like most people, she thought recycling was enough to save the planet from drowning in plastic.

But the reality is that most packaging isn't accepted by recycling companies and the plastic in our oceans is still snowing.

Nowadays, Beth's belief is to refuse, repair, and reuse. She refuses to buy anything that comes in a packet. Local bakeries and butcheries, she found, would happily provide food in her own container.

Then she moved to Wellington, and things got a bit harder. Many bulk (散装) food stores were only open during work hours, and she gratefully turned to the regional shopping guides put out by The Rubbish Trip.

She took every chance to show off her "take everywhere bag " , which contains a cloth for hand drying and cleaning，a keep cup, and a container.

Most importantly, she says, it's a privilege (荣耀) to make these choices. But she's cautious not to push her ideas down people's throats. "It's what's sustainable for you personally," she said.

Most rewarding was seeing the effect on those around her. Her dad proudly told anyone who would listen how his daughter was going waste-free. Her flat mates also agreed to go waste-free when cooking for the flat and to remote the bin from the kitchen. And every plastic container they brought into the house was another for Beth's collection.

3 . When most of us think of sand, we immediately think of sunny beaches and summer holidays. But actually it’s in pretty much everything that surrounds us in our everyday lives. From the walls of our homes to the glass bottles in our kitchens and even the mobile phones in our hands. Sand is the second most used resource in the world after water: it accounts for more than two-thirds of everything that’s being dug out of the ground. But there isn’t a limitless supply. In fact, a UN report says we might be running out.

According to the report, we use an estimated 15 billion tons of sand every year in the construction industry alone. That’s enough to build a 20m × 20m wall around the equator every year. However, sand can take tens of thousands of years to form: the process starts with rock being eroded(侵蚀) in the mountains and ends, eventually, with sand being in river beds and on the seafloor.

Sand is heavy and difficult to transport, so in developing countries, sand is often mined from the nearest convenient source, and quite often that means a river bed or beach. But beaches and rivers are delicately balanced ecosystems and when a large amount of sand is removed, the balance is upset. The smallest fish, which eat organic matter on the sand in river beds, from the base of the food chain in a river. If this sand is removed, so is the source of food for the bottom feeders. All organisms in a food chain share the joys and the sorrows. Thus, when they disappear, so does the food for the larger fish which would have been caught and eaten, or sold by fishermen.

It is high time we took into consideration the big problem concerning the tiny thing. More and more conservationists are calling for alternatives to sand especially in the construction industry.

4 . Some kids dream of being superheroes that can save our planet from evil but believe it or not, even a small kid like YOU can help save our planet.

When I was a _________ , my mom and dad would push me in a baby jogger. We would pick up soda cans while my mom and dad ran. Before I could _________, whenever I saw a can I would point to it. It was fun picking up cans. We ran a lot miles and _________ up many cans.

When I was five, I went _________ with my mom, dad, and a friend at Bastrop State Park. The first night we went for a bike ride. I _________ on my dad's bike. There was so much _________ that the road did not look pretty. The second day, when we went for a _________ along the same road, we picked up all the cans—about one hundred of them. The road looked much _________ when we went home.

I am now too _________ for the baby jogger. But I still pick up cans wherever we go, and my mom and dad still bring back cans from their walks. We ____________ the cans behind and inside our garage. When I was very young, we would ____________ the cans to a can cruncher in a store park. It was fun____________ all the cans crunching(压碎), but it was untidy.

Now we store the cans ____________ we get a lot of them, then we take them on our friend's big truck to the recycling place. One time, I sold 410 pounds ____________.

I have sold over 1, 000 pounds of cans, and I am only nine years old. I ____________ the world by making the roads, the lakes, and the trails prettier, and because all my cans are recycled.