A passion for recycling小小男孩的环保事业

Zoya Siddiqui

三歲的雷恩在某一天跟着爸爸搜集自家及邻居的瓶瓶罐罐，当爸爸将一袋袋的瓶子投进回收机后，回收机竟换出了现金，这让雷恩感到雀跃，并开启了自己的环保事业！

A decade ago， three ⁃year⁃old RyanHickman and his father， Damion， made atrip to their local recycling center in Cali⁃fornia. Afterwards， Ryan proposed an ideato his parents. He wanted to hand out plas⁃tic bags to his neighbors so that they couldsave their recyclables for him.

“We thought it was kind of funny atfirst because he was so little，”Damionsaid during a recent interview.“And then，week after week， we realized he was reallyinto it， so we thought that was pretty cool.”Now 13， Ryan is the founder of Ryan's Re⁃cycling Company. To date， he has recycledmore than 1.7 million cans and bottles.

In 2016， a story about Ryan's effortswent viral， attracting global attention.Since then， he has been featured on severalmedia platforms and honored with numer⁃ous awards.

Ryan is also the founder of a non⁃profit organization called Project3R. Estab⁃lished in 2020， its goal is to raise people's climate and recycling awareness throughbeach cleanups and other events. He toldme about a recent beach cleanup， which in⁃volved about 300 people.

Every Saturday， Ryan and his fathermake their weekly rounds in OrangeCounty， where they live. They collect recy⁃clable items such as plastic cans andbottles. The items are eventually sorted attheir house or at their local recycling cen⁃ter， where the recyclables are weighed andcashed in.

Ryan continues to inspire peoplearound the world. He enjoys recyclingand plans to continue doing so for as longas he can.“Every little bit makes a bigdifference. Just start small. Even onebottle can help，”he said.

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Why was Project3R set up？

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