The ZERI Learning Initiative

Adults can put things together, but they don’t know how to take them apart. Why can kids take things apart faster?

This is one of the problems that hurts the Earth. Adults build many many things and then throw them away because they don’t know how to take them apart. They create a lot of waste that just builds up in piles called landfills.

Have you ever used ‘waste’ to make art projects?

Have you ever played with an empty cardboard box?

If you have, then you are using waste as a resource - something adults almost never know how to do! And this is great, and something adults need to learn, because if all humans used waste properly then we wouldn’t have as many environmental problems, and we would have more resources available for everyone.

Did you know that humans are the only species on the planet that make waste? Nature has ways to use everything, just like kids!

ZERI is an organization that helps to support kids who want to solve problems that their parents cant solve, by using whatever is locally available. Using waste we can help to solve most of the problems facing the Earth.

For example, in Japan kids used an eggshell, a banana peel, and some lemon juice to make electricity! This only makes a little bit of energy, but it is a different way for us to think about electricity. Imagine if your waste could power your house and even your computer! Can you imagine your parents’ faces when you tell them that with a banana peel and an egg shell you can make enough electricity to power a light?!