Introducing  Waste Warriors – Young people protecting the planet together.

Waste Warriors is My Little Zen’s youth-led sustainability programme, where children and young people learn that their actions matter and that they have the power to protect their environment and their community.

In many of the communities we work with, there is no formal waste collection. Rubbish is often burned in the open – a practice that has long felt normal, unavoidable, and invisible.

As a result of our weekly yoga and wellbeing sessions, young people begin to see their surroundings differently. They start asking questions: Why do we burn our waste? What happens to the air we breathe? Can we do something differently?

Waste Warriors begins with that moment of realisation – led by the young people themselves at the Happy House in Kenya. Wanting cleaner air and healthier minds, the children asked how they could help their environment.

Guided by in-person activities and weekly online sessions with My Little Zen, they launched Waste Warriors as an inquiry into their own waste. Soon, they became “data detectives” – sorting household waste into categories, weighing it weekly, and tracking patterns over time using Waste Warrior Diaries.

Motivated to act, the children experimented with solutions: creating items from plastic waste, setting up sorting stations at home, reducing burning, and encouraging caregivers to take part. The ripple effect soon spread beyond the home, as children introduced Waste Warriors to their local school and inspired others to join.

Today, Waste Warriors is a ready-to-use programme and set of resources that any community can benefit from.

As part of UNESCO’s Greening Education Partnership, My Little Zen supports greening literacy and education led by young people themselves – empowering children not just to learn about sustainability, but to live it, lead it, and pass it on.

Contact us to find out more and join our Waste Warrior Programme.