One day there was a boy named Bronson who was out for walk with his dog. He was having a grand time with his best buddy until he came across a park that had trash all over the place. Seeing all of this trash at the park made him feel sad inside because it used to be such a beautiful place to run around with his dog and play; but now there was too much junk in the way!

Bronson got an idea! He decided to go home and get a big bag to pick up all the trash. He had seen other people do this before using long sticks, but he didn't have any of those, so he decided to use some gloves to keep any germs off of his hands.

His mom liked his ideas so much that she came to join him too!

Back at the park, they noticed that some of the trash could actually be recycled; so they started a separate bag for recyclables. They worked all day picking up trash and recyclables. Bronson had to double check with his mom a few times to make sure about what could be recycled and what could not. At the end of the day, their hard work paid off. The park looked amazing!

That night, Bronson threw the big bags full of recyclables into their recycling bag and threw the trash bags in their trash can. Both bins were overflowing! Bronson felt so proud of himself for cleaning up. His mom told him that she was proud of him too because they helped the environment in a big way - so it got him thinking...

1. Reusable bags at the grocery store
2. Resuable water bottles, cups, and eating utensils
3. Reusable rags instead of paper towels
4. No more plastic straws
5. Start a compost bucket
6. Walk/ride bike to school
7. Plant trees
8. Recycle appropriate items
9. Conserve water (shorter showers, collect rain-water for garden, turn off faucet while brushing teeth)
10. Melt old crayons to use again

"If it feels this good to help the environment by cleaning up some trash... then I wonder how amazing it will feel if I could help the environment in other ways as well!?"

So, with the help of his mom, Bronson began listing off all the ways that he could personally help make the environment a cleaner place.

Can you think of any more?

Each day, Bronson began doing some helpful things that he wrote on his list...

First, He picked out his favorite water bottle and started reusing that for his water throughout the day.

He started helping his mom wash the dishes so they could use more reusable eating utensils instead of paper plates and plastic forks.

He started taking reusable bags on trips to the grocery store with his mom instead of having the baggers place their items in paper or plastic bags. (This was actually kind of fun because he got to pick out fun bags with his favorite animals on them!)