Say hello to our new friends who embody Zero Waste and the 4Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rot)!

Watch the award-winning six-minute movie of the Zero Waste Characters here.

Most often used in our school programs, these characters demonstrate the principles of minimizing waste.

Zero is just like Little Miss Reduce, Again!, Blue, and Green except she does even more for our planet! She starts by exploring the past, present, and future of CVSan’s Path to Zero Waste to find ideas. She is ethical, economical, efficient, and visionary. She guides people in changing their lifestyles and practices to be more harmonious with nature, where all discarded materials are designed to become resources for others to use. Zero designs and works to eliminate all waste and toxic materials. She works to conserve and recover all resources, instead of burning or burying them. Zero aims to eliminate all discharges to land, water, or air that are a threat to the health of humans, wildlife, or the planet.

Little Miss Reduce is a student who makes less waste from the start. She and her club pick tree fruit for neighbors who want the help, and donate it to Castro Valley’s food pantry. She hosts canning parties and makes jams and salsa with her friends from unusually shaped strawberries and tomatoes.

Again! is a reuse superhero who defends against the wastefulness of single-use products. She wears a mask of infinity, which gives her the power to see value in using things over and over. She teaches others how to fix what’s broken, to choose quality over quantity, and to buy used instead of new.

Blue is a recycler who transforms paper, plastic, metal, and glass packaging and containers into recycled products. He can gobble up any plastic with #1-7 on it (except foam, which gives him a tummy ache). By recycling, Blue protects our limited natural resources, so paper is made from other paper instead of trees.

Green works the land, turning our plant debris, food scraps, and food-soiled paper into rich, nutritious compost. He learned from his daughter, Little Miss Reduce, that food sent to a landfill releases methane and carbon dioxide (CO2) gas. Methane traps heat in the air 20 times more than carbon dioxide, which makes the earth too warm. He’s proud of the compost he makes and how it helps cultivate more food.