Greenkeepers began with a trash pickup in Beijing and kept going for more than 15 years
A student-run service group founded at an international school now has chapters from California to Jakarta.
Most student clubs last as long as their founders’ senior year. Greenkeepers has outlasted its founders by well over a decade.
The group was started in Beijing in August 2009. According to its Wikipedia entry, the idea came out of a trash pickup organized by the Beijing Student Press Association, which all six founders belonged to: Kevin Xiao, Vivian Xiao, Olivia Tan, Jeffrey Yu, Philipa Yu and Laura Du. The organization is entirely student-run, and the Beijing chapter is made up almost entirely of international high school students.
Its early projects were hands-on and local: a river cleanup, a book drive for Sichuan, tree planting and tree labeling, and awareness efforts such as mug sponsoring. Wikipedia lists impact figures that include more than 7,000 donated books and more than 1,000 trees planted.
The model travels because the paperwork is light. A Bay Area chapter launched in 2014. In Jakarta, a branch started in 2023 under head founder Shinyeong (Erica) Moon, mainly at Jakarta Intercultural School. Its battery recycling drive, the school’s first such system and funded with 7.5 million rupiah, had collected 44.8 kilograms of batteries as of October 2024.
The California chapter shows what it looks like when it works at small scale. The Cool Down reports current student leaders organizing cleanups, clothing swaps and educational panels, including a “Leave No Trace” campaign at Lake Elizabeth. Chapter member Ritika Mhatre told the Tri-City Voice, as quoted by The Cool Down, that volunteers had collected over 200 pounds of trash. Another leader, Manya Jain, put the philosophy plainly: “It takes just one person to start change.”
Her other line is better. “I don’t think we’re going to Mars anytime soon, so treating this as our home and not just as a hotel matters.”
Greenkeepers has no flashy numbers and no celebrity backers, which is part of the point. It is an institution that renews itself every four years with a fresh set of teenagers and a bag for the litter. We did not find an official website or contact page; Wikipedia is the best public record.
