His mission is to clean up our rivers and oceans!
Cash Daniels was 7 when he found a plastic straw in the ocean and was moved to tackle water pollution. At 14, he’s still going strong and making a big impact
Ocean waves lapped at 7-year-old Cash Daniels’ legs as he and his family enjoyed a day at the beach while vacationing in Florida. But then something tickled his toes. Reaching into the water, he came up with a plastic straw. The piece of trash got Cash thinking about something he had learned during a visit to his local aquarium.
Along with lots of interesting facts about sea creatures, Cash had learned that the Tennessee River, which runs through their hometown of Chattanooga, was considered the most microplastics-polluted waterway in the country.
Cash took the straw over to his parents and told them, “I want to start cleaning up the Tennessee River. The rivers dump trash into the ocean.”
The Saturday after they got home, Cash went with his family and collected 30 buckets of trash at a river kayak launch.
His mom thought that might be the end of it. But Cash asked if they could go back again the next weekend.
Every weekend, Cash insisted on returning to the river. Word of his mission spread and soon some of the aquarium staff joined in the cleanup. Then church friends and neighbors also started showing up. An Instagram post inspired even more volunteers.
“The Conservation Kid,” people dubbed Cash, and he used that name for the nonprofit he started (Theconservationkid.com).
“Our drinking water comes f from this river,” Cash told a r reporter and explained how d discarded f ishing line can be d deadly to birds and turtles.
Cash used the proceeds from can recycling and donations to his nonprofit to buy m monofilament recycling stati tions for f ishermen to dispose of f ishing line. He’s installed 160 along river shorelines throughout Tennessee and f ive other states. The f ishing line goes to a company that turns it into f ish habitats that help rejuvenate the ecosystem.
In 2019, he teamed up with a like-minded young girl, Ella Grace, to form The Cleanup Kids (Thecleanupkids.org), a nonprofit to engage other youth in cleaning up the Earth and its natural resources. In 2022, in a mass cleanup, kids collected over 1 million pieces of trash.
Today, Cash, now 14, speaks to other conservation groups, wildlife off icials and state legislators and has written a book, One Small Piece.
“You don’t have to be a professional or an expert to make a difference. I’m only 14 and I’ve been making a difference for half my life,” says Cash. “Us kids may be a small part of the population, but we’re 100% of our planet’s future.”