This is Northridge elementary in Lubbock, Texas.

It’s a place where children learn early the link between their trash and the health of the planet.

“If we can reach children at this age, and get them to be involved in recycling, then as they grow older, the awareness will continue and the earth will be a better place because of it," Debbie Zaks says.

Debbie Zak’s a science teacher. She spearheaded the 11-year-old recycling program at Northridge.

Bottles, plastic forks, and cups are recycled every day. Each Wednesday the kids even bring recycling from home and sort it at school. Leftovers from lunch are composted and then spread on a school garden.

"The more you don't recycle; our trees go away because we need more paper. Our aluminum, we use that. If we throw that away we don't get to reuse it. And everything just starts disappearing slowly. We have about a third less garbage that goes into our garbage dumpsters and therefore the landfill. So, just from a quantitative perspective, I'd say that we're making a difference," Zaks adds.

“I tell them to recycle and to collect box tops. And we collect our cans in our garage. Every time they drink a can of soda or something I'm like, 'Don't throw it away, put it in the garage’,” fifth grader, Jessie Gray adds.

"It's pretty neat to see everybody recycling. If you tell your parents, then your parents tell their friends, it will just keep going on and on," fifth grader, Zachary Dixon says.

Kim Perry’s a mother of two. She says her family feels there’s no reason not to go green.

After all, she says recycling is one of the easiest ways to make a difference.

"Every Saturday morning we kind of have a routine. We try to fix breakfast and have some family time. But, always in there, we're collecting all the recycling and we take it and the kids help me sort it, It's just a part of what we do on Saturdays now," Perry says.

Kim also says it’s important to keep things simple.

The Perry’s never pre-sort things, they do that when they get to the recycling center.

All it really takes is having one place in the home to put all those reusable treasures.

"We are one, tiny little family on this planet, but it's something that we can do together. And that's what I hope, that my kids understand how important it is that we take care of our little part. Because if every family did that, just taking care of their little part, then that would be magnified times the whole world," Perry adds.

Northridge elementary raises $ 2,000 dollars a year from recycling. If you’d like to start recycling at your school, experts say start small. Encourage kids to bring easy items like aluminum cans and your program can grow from there.