This week I took a quick trip with my friend Mitch Hedlund from Recycle Across America and my dad to Washington DC. We had a day of pouring rain and I got to visit my friend Mason for dinner who is going to college at George Washington University. I met with a lot of Congress representatives and their staff about the importance of recycling and using standardized bin labels but my favorite part of the trip was meeting Congressman Alan Lowenthal and learning how the voting works on the house floor.

I also learned there are underground tunnels between the capitol building and the buildings where all the reps work so they can get between the buildings easily. On the flight home, I asked the flight crew to give me the plastic bottles and aluminum cans so I could recycle them instead of them going into the landfill with the trash.

The Greater Irvine Chamber hosted their 40 under 40 awards tonight and I was super proud to be recognized as a future leader. Thank you to all the people who came up to me and said hi and I’m really proud of my Congressional Recognition Certificate. How cool is that?!  Thank you Jay Ware from Ware Disposal for introducing me and thank you to everyone in Orange County who supports Ryan’s Recycling.

This weekend we had a big beach clean up at Laguna Beach! About 200 people came out and helped me clean up the beach. Laguna Beach is one of the cleanest beaches I know of and we still were able to find enough trash to fill almost two trash cans (almost 150lbs). Thank you everyone who came out and helped at the event. You all are so awesome. The Today Show was filming me for a new segment coming up and they filmed the event and then we did interviews and they followed me to OC Recycling where we recycled a truck load of cans and bottles. I can’t wait to see the show on tv soon!

Thank you to my sponsors of the event: Labeltronix, KYA Group, Hobie Surf Shops, JUST Water, Sand Cloud, Rock N Road Cyclery, Panini Kabob Grill, Tippys Coffee in Laguna Beach, The Pacific Marine Mammal Center, The Printery, Unger and the Wyland Foundation.

A few weeks ago, our local recycling center (REPLANET) went out of business. Not just our local facility but all of them across California. I’m so bummed because I had a lot of friends that worked there that lost their jobs. It’s getting harder to recycle in California for a lot of people who can’t travel very far like my dad and I do. We’ve been driving 20 miles up the freeway to OC Recycling in Santa Ana. The drive is not great but they have an awesome facility and we’re in and out of there in no time. Their team of people are so nice to me too. The good news is that a lot more people are calling us for pick ups of their cans and bottles since they don’t have a place to take it in the neighborhood. I’m hoping that recycling gets easier in California for everyone else soon or lots of recyclable items are going to end up in the landfill.

Thank you everyone who recycles with me – we’re making a big difference together.

Hey everyone – today my segment with KIDBOX aired on the TODAY SHOW! If you missed it, you can check it out here: https://www.today.com/video/meet-10-inspiring-kids-going-above-and-beyond-with-charity-work-66277445924

It was pretty cool to go to NYC and meet the other kids and I’m excited to be on the KIDBOX board of directors this year – we’re going to do some cool stuff together!

I was so excited to write the foreword for my friend Malte and his company Shore Buddies. They make stuffed animals out of recycled materials (Each Shore Buddy is made from 6 recycled, cleaned and shredded plastic bottles.) and they teach kids the importance of clean oceans. Plus, $1 from every product purchased goes to help save marine life. So cool! Order yours today at https://shore-buddies.com/

The end of July and the first week of August were a lot of traveling for Ryan. From California to Alaska to New York and back, there was a lot of filming, meeting new friends and camping for the first time outside the backyard.

Before leaving to Alaska, Ryan toured Bearsaver Inc. They make the heavy duty trash and recycle bins you’d see in places like the National Park Service. Those bins just happen to have the Recycle Across America standardized bin labels on them to help people recycle right (and the bins keep bears from getting into the trash). It was an awesome tour and Ryan got to add the final decals on finished bins ready to roll out the door.

From there it was off to Anchorage, AK. Ryan took tours of the Valley Community recycling center in Palmer, AK and filmed at REI, The Denali Education Center, Subaru and Husky Homestead. Ryan loved seeing the bears, moose, caribou and Dall sheep while in Alaska and loved camping with the team from Recycle Across America. This time of the year, it’s light outside nearly all day and night in Alaska so it was a little tough to get to sleep but Ryan zipped all the way up in his sleeping bag and made it happen. Thank you Denise, Paul and Mitch, Scot and Alexa and Alex for making this trip awesome. (And everyone at each stop along the way)

After a ten hour delay getting out of Anchorage, Ryan was finally on his way to NYC to make an appearance as one of the new KIDBOX Kid Board of Directors. He had a great time meeting the other kids on the board this year and loved being able to make a difference by handing out backpacks with supplies in them for the kids that needed them at Cherry Kids, Inc in Harlem. Ryan is going to be doing some cool things with KIDBOX this year and there will be lots more news coming soon about that. Ryan loved meeting up with his friend Brooklynn Prince while in NYC and spent a few days checking out a bunch of NYC with other friends as well.

Ryan stopped by TIME for Kids Magazine and toured their office and stopped by Parents magazine for a quick hello. Ryan is being featured in a PARENTS magazine story coming up soon. Ryan made sure to get a hot dog from a cart in Manhattan and ride the subway many times (his two favorite things to do in New York).

After 5 days in NYC, it was time to come home. Ryan made friends with the pilots and flight crew on every flight of the trip and added quite a few more pairs of wings to his flight wings collection. Thank you David at XL Limo Services for getting Ryan and team to and from the airport. We can’t wait to share the videos once they get edited down and Ryan is so happy to have met so many amazing people on this trip. Thanks everyone who made these last two weeks possible for Ryan. #kidbox #recycleacrossamerica #subaru #recyclelikeryan