Cash Fights Trash

Cash D. loves sharks! He can easily spend all day in an aquarium. He’s even gone scuba diving in Florida! More importantly, Cash makes sure sharks, fish and turtles have a safe home.

Because rivers carry tons of plastic pollution to the ocean, he works hard to clean up rivers near his home in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

“My main goal is to help take good care of God’s creation,” Cash says. “We only have one planet, and we need to take care of it.”

Along with his friends, Cash has removed more than 20,000 pounds of trash from waterways and recycled 3,000 pounds of aluminum.

Plastic Everywhere
Cash developed his interest in cleaning rivers while on vacation. He was playing in the sand at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, when he spotted a plastic straw.

Cash and his brother, Colt, played a game, counting the trash they found: straws, old water bottles, plastic bags, broken toys. The piles of junk made Cash sad.

When he got home, Cash did some research. He discovered that plastic slowly breaks down over time into tiny pieces called microplastic. People might not be able to see it, but it doesn’t go away. When a small fish nibbles a tiny piece of microplastic, and a big fish eats the small fish, and a person eats the big fish, that person is eating plastic. Yuck!

In order to help save the ocean, Cash “adopted” a mile of the Tennessee River. He organized a clean-up crew of about 10 people, both adults and children. They walked along the river, picked up trash and stuffed it in bags. They found bottles, soda cans and even old car tires.

Cash recruited more kids from his church’s youth group. A local hardware store donated orange buckets and gloves to use for trash collection. (Cash didn’t want to use garbage bags, because they would only add more plastic to landfills.)

When Cash started cleaning at 8 years old, he became the youngest person in Tennessee to adopt a river mile. He didn’t let his age stop him.

“Kids may be a small percentage of the population,” he says. “But they are 100 percent of the future.”

A Good Steward
Cash attends Trail Life at his church. Boys in Trail Life promise to “be a good steward of creation.” A steward is someone who takes care of the things God has given us.

“That’s my calling in life,” Cash says. “It’s the reason God put me in the place where I am.”

During a clean-up day, Cash noticed that birds, fish and turtles were getting tangled in old fishing lines. Cash sold windchimes made out of broken glass he’d collected to raise money. Then he bought special recycling tubes to safely dispose of the fishing lines.

In 2019, Cash attended Ocean Heroes Bootcamp, where he met a girl named Ella. They were instant friends! Cash and Ella started a podcast called “The Cleanup Kids.” On their YouTube channel, they post educational videos showing ways to fight pollution. Cash and Ella also show wildlife of all kinds, including sharks, lions and bugs.

Cash loves teaching others. “We want to inspire other kids of all ages to pick up one million pieces of trash by the end of the year,” he says.

Cash goes by “The Conservation Kid” online because he does all he can to conserve, or protect, the world.

“When I see pollution, I feel disappointed that people keep littering,” he says. “We’re dirtying up God’s creation.”

Cash has won several awards for his work, including a $5,000 scholarship. Time magazine named him a finalist for Kid of the Year in 2022. He’s been invited on TV shows and podcasts to talk about protecting the environment. He even met with the mayor of his city.

But Cash doesn’t let the attention go to his head. Week after week, he returns to the river, picking up trash one small piece at a time. Cash hopes to be a marine biologist, professional scuba diver or a filmmaker when he grows up.

“If someone says you can’t do something, prove them wrong and get out there and do it,” Cash says. “You’re never too young or too old to make a difference.”

Cash’s Favorites
Animal: whale shark
Pets: fish and turtles
Food: chocolate chip cookies
Color: blue
School subject: history
Bible stories: Jesus’ birth and the Easter story

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