The young people growing up on Hawaiʻi Island today will inherit both the beauty and the burden of decisions being made right now — about waste, climate, land use, and the future of these islands. That is not a rhetorical point. It is a material reality. And it is why investing in youth leadership in the Zero Waste movement is not optional. It is essential.
Recycle Hawaiʻi has long believed that meaningful youth engagement looks different from a classroom worksheet or a single beach cleanup. It looks like young people doing real work, making real decisions, and being trusted with real responsibility. In partnership with Mālama ʻĀina Compostables and the Kaʻū Global Learning Lab, we are building exactly that.
Mālama ʻĀina Compostables: Stewardship Through Practice
Mālama ʻĀina Compostables brings together the values of indigenous land stewardship and the practical science of organic material management. For youth participants, this means learning composting not as a chore but as a practice of relationship — with the soil, with the food system, and with the cycles of growth and decomposition that have sustained these islands for centuries.
Young people engaged with Mālama ʻĀina Compostables are learning to manage compost systems, to understand material inputs and outputs, and to see themselves as active participants in the island’s ecological health. [NOTE FOR JC/SD: Please add any program-specific details, participant numbers, or outcomes data available here.]
Kaʻū Global Learning Lab: Where Local Meets Global
The Kaʻū Global Learning Lab at Kaʻū High School represents one of the most ambitious models of place-based, globally-connected environmental education in the state. Students here are not just learning about environmental issues — they are researching them, presenting on them, and connecting with peers, scientists, and policymakers beyond the island and beyond Hawaiʻi.
Recycle Hawaiʻi’s partnership with Kaʻū High School through our EPA Recycling Education and Outreach (REO) grant has brought waste diversion education directly into the learning environment — and brought student voice back into our work. When Kaʻū students analyze local waste streams, present findings to their school community, or propose solutions to county-level waste challenges, they are doing the work of environmental leaders, not just students.
[NOTE FOR JC/SD: Please add any specific Kaʻū student projects, milestones, or presentation highlights you’d like to feature here.]
What Real Youth Engagement Looks Like
Too often, ‘youth engagement’ in environmental organizations means having young people attend adult-designed events and hold signs. What Recycle Hawaiʻi, Mālama ʻĀina Compostables, and Kaʻū Global Learning Lab are building together is something different:
- Youth as researchers: conducting waste audits, analyzing data, and drawing conclusions that inform real organizational decisions
- Youth as educators: presenting to peers, families, and community members about Zero Waste practices and the importance of composting
- Youth as advocates: understanding the policy context of the issues they’re working on and finding their voice in civic processes
- Youth as practitioners: managing compost systems, staffing waste stations at events, and taking on operational roles that require skill and trust
Why This Matters for the Zero Waste Movement
The Zero Waste movement in Hawaiʻi — and globally — needs what young people uniquely bring: fresh frameworks, cultural fluency across communities, and the energy to sustain long advocacy campaigns over decades. The adults doing this work today built on the foundation laid by those who came before. We have a responsibility to lay the same kind of foundation for those coming after.
We also have a responsibility to listen. The young people in our programs often see things that longtime practitioners miss — structural inequities in who bears the burden of waste, creative solutions that assume different constraints, and a moral clarity about urgency that is clarifying for everyone in the room.
Get Involved
- If you are a student or recent graduate interested in environmental work on Hawaiʻi Island, reach out to us about internship and volunteer opportunities
- If you are an educator, ask us about bringing Zero Waste programming into your classroom or school
- If you are a funder or business partner, ask us about supporting youth programming specifically — it is some of the highest-leverage work we do
The future of Zero Waste in Hawaiʻi is being built right now, in compost bins in Kaʻū and classrooms in Hilo and community gardens across this island. We are honored to be part of it.
