At the very early age of 3, Ryan Hickman knew he loved the idea of recycling. He went to the recycling center with his dad and found it his passion. Ryan didn’t like seeing bottles and cans on the ground, and unlike most kids, wanted to do something about it. He started asking his neighbors to keep their bottles and cans for him to recycle. Of course, the word had spread, and people loved what he was doing. By age seven, he was running his own recycling business in Orange County California. In his seven years, he had recycled nearly 1 million cans and bottles. He was doing Earth Day, every day!

Because of his passion, Hickman was recognized with several awards and recognitions. He appeared on the Ellen DeGeneres Show, The Pickler and Ben Show, Little Big Shots, and was featured on NBC, CNN, CNBC, PBS, Fox News, Amazon Prime’s Self Made series, Australia’s channel 7 Sunrise morning channel, Huffington Post, Voices of America, David Wolf, AJ+, UpWorthy, Now This!, AOL, Mini Moguls, 60 Seconds Docs, ATTN, KBS, USA Today, Univision, Good Morning America, The TODAY SHOW, NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt, CBS Evening News, and ABC World News. He was also interviewed by Maria Menunous on Sirius/XM Radio and Ryan Seacrest’s syndicated radio program. He was rewarded several titles, such as “2017 Citizen of the Year” by his hometown. He was also recognized as one of the 100 Most Influential People of 2017. He was also selected as Top 15 Kids Changing the World by MSN, 40 Kids Who Have Changed the World by Good House Keeping in 2019 and 2020, 2020 List of Kids of the Decade Changing the World by Reader’s Digest and was featured in TIME Magazine for Kids. He was also nominated for Kid of the Year by TIMES Magazine. He ALSO partnered with Old Navy and H&M for his eco efforts across the world.

Not only was Ryan featured in several top news, and he also founded the nonprofit organization Project3R. He also co-founded Recycle from Home.

Let’s just say, Ryan is truly making a difference in the world, and it shows, his age doesn’t prohibit him from succeeding and sharing his passion to others.

“If a kid like me can make a difference, anyone can, too,” Hickman says. “When we all do just a little bit, it adds up to a huge difference. Thanks for helping me clean up our planet.”