EcoActionNJ: Turning youth concern into community impact
I love walking. It means for me exploring my town – its natural environment and architecture – sometimes guided by music. I had walked as long as I could remember, until that one afternoon changed it all.
One quiet afternoon, while walking near my town’s local gym, I found myself surrounded by overfilled trash bags, discarded takeout containers, and plastic packaging that had been left for days. This scene was neither hidden nor unusual, and it underlined the problem.
Just like most people, I too complained about litter in the past. I even saw it while walking to school. It extended to local businesses outside and to nearby public buildings like the Palisades Park Library. But then I came to a point when frustration alone wasn’t doing anything to alter what I was seeing. That moment became the starting point for EcoActionNJ.
EcoActionNJ was founded by students as a way of turning concern into action. What began with students organizing local cleanups while still in high school blossomed into a larger effort. Our premise was straightforward: if environmental problems were visible in our neighborhoods, so should our solutions be too.
From the beginning, EcoActionNJ concentrated on accessibility. We wanted environmental action to be inviting. Any type of work that we had hosted, from cleanups to meetings, did not require prior experience or any form of credentials. They required showing up. Over time, these efforts expanded beyond litter removal. We began educating the members of the community, all while collaborating with peers, and exploring how local policy intersects with environmental outcomes.
EcoActionNJ has helped remove hundreds of pounds of waste from public spaces throughout Bergen County, New Jersey, via numerous community cleanups. These events brought together everyone: students, residents, and volunteers who might not otherwise see themselves as environmental advocates. Each cleanup became a physical testament of improvement to shared spaces and an entry point into larger topics about waste, sustainability, and overall care for the community.
As we continued, more and more we realized cleanup efforts were just not enough; many of the problems we encountered were because of systems that normalized single-use plastic waste. In response, EcoActionNJ organized outreach that combined education with civic engagement. We launched a petition calling for local action on single-use plastic waste and collected over 600 signatures through in-person conversations and online outreach.
Bringing these concerns to local officials proved to be a key next step; it showed that young people could indeed be thoughtful participants in civic processes and that community voices could be constructive. These conversations made EcoAction NJ, an entirely action-oriented group, become policy-aware.
Of equal importance is the social impact of this work. EcoActionNJ has provided students with the opportunity to learn how to lead collaboratively, communicate with diverse audiences, and take responsibility for their communities. Several attendees shared that these events were their first experiences with organized civic action; seeing peers take initiative actually made environmental engagement feel possible, not overwhelming.
Probably most surprising has been how much of this environmental work has been about people. Cleanups lead to impromptu conversations with passersby. Petitions become opportunities to listen rather than persuade. Interviews with local leaders turn abstract policies into human decisions.
Moving forward, EcoActionNJ hopes to continue its growth by developing youth leadership, informing and supporting policy-informed advocacy, and further providing students with more substantial opportunities for meaningful community engagement. The work is ongoing; the challenges are real. But so, too, is the potential for impact when young people are mobilized to act.
Since its founding, EcoActionNJ has grown from a small student initiative to a multi-state effort of direct action, civic engagement, and community outreach. Our advocacy expanded beyond cleanups in August 2025 when we collected 680+ community signatures both in person and online, calling for local action on Styrofoam waste. That momentum continued this fall, as EcoActionNJ leadership met with municipal officials in Palisades Park to discuss priorities in sustainability, environmental challenges, and the role of local government in advancing climate policy.
After all this time, our work has remained rooted in action, through many obstacles that might have stalled our process. In December 2025, EcoAction NJ and its newly formed New York chapter cleaned up an estimated 210 pounds of waste during a community cleanup, marking a meaningful step toward expanding our efforts outside New Jersey.
Most recently, on January 3, 2026, EcoActionNJ led its first cleanup of the year in New York City, removing an estimated 184+ pounds of street waste from a high-traffic public area. This cleanup represents not just our most recent milestone but also the beginning of a broader push in 2026 toward deeper collaboration, sustained programming, and the possible formation of additional local chapters.
EcoActionNJ did not begin with a clearly thought-out plan but did begin by identifying a problem and not choosing to do nothing. That decision-our first step-continues to frame our work as we work toward communities that are cleaner.
