At the age of 11, I was well aware of the three Rs: recycle, reduce, and reuse. I was instructed to recycle everything I could, to decrease the amount of waste I produced, and to reuse anything before discarding it. However, one 11-year-old child has gone it a step further by establishing his own recycling business. Passion affects people differently and at different times.
Ryan Hickman’s passion in recycling began when he was very young. His father took him to a recycling center when he was three years old to drop off some cans for recycling. Ryan was so taken with the procedure and having so much fun that he told his parents that he’d like to assist his neighbors recycle as well.His major idea was to provide his neighbors bags in which to put their recyclables and then collect those recyclables for his neighborhood.
It didn’t take long for his concept to catch on. Ryan’s Recycling Company was founded in 2012 as a result of this. Isn’t that a good name for his company?Some children lose interest in their hobbies as they grow older, but Ryan appears to have doubled down and become even more enthusiastic about recycling.”It takes 90 years for a can to break down,” Hickman said in an interview with In The Know. “A plastic bottle takes 600 years to degrade.” A glass bottle takes one million years to decompose.”
His business has progressively expanded, and he now has consumers all around Orange County, California. Every week, he spends a few minutes going through all of the recycling that he receives from his clients in order to get it ready for the recycling facility. He’s recycled over a million cans thus far.”I started recycling when I was 3.5 years old and have recycled over 1 million cans and bottles.” “I’m 11 now, so that’s 8 years of recycling,” Ryan explained.
“What keeps me motivated to keep recycling is simply receiving letters and emails from all over the world thanking me and encouraging me to keep recycling,” Ryan explains.Recycling offers numerous advantages. Recycling has other advantages apart from merely being better for the environment. Here are some quick recycling facts:Ryan’s Recycling Company’s tale originally went viral in 2016 and continues to captivate people all over the world.
To date, he has appeared on the Ellen DeGeneres show, Ryan Seacrest’s podcast, ABC World News, Fox, CNN, NBC, and other network news shows. Ryan has also appeared in print magazines such as National Geographic, TIME Magazine for Kids, and OC Family Magazine. The Orange County Register named him one of the most influential persons in 2017 and he was named one of MSN’s “top 15 kids changing the world” in 2018. He was recently named to the Reader’s Digest 2020 List of Kids Who Are Changing the World.
Ryan’s company is headquartered in Orange County, but you can help him by visiting his website and purchasing products from his store. Ryan is grateful to all of his customers and fans. According to his website: “Thank you to everyone who has written Ryan encouraging emails and who has supported his enthusiasm. Ryan is a Youth Ambassador at the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach, and he hopes to create as much awareness about saving the earth through recycling and saving for his future college education,
(or saving for a full-size trash truck). All of the proceeds from his firm logo t-shirts go toward their volunteer initiatives. Ryan is also a dedicated brand ambassador for Sand Cloud, Busch Systems, Recycle Across America, and Valet Living’s recycling and sustainability activities.”