Sandy was on a walk in the park. Minding her own business and enjoying nature and listening to the birds singing.
She loved being out in nature and she learned and believed that we have to look after nature and all animals.
On her way home she suddenly heard a cry "Look where you are going!!!"
She first did not know where the sound was coming from, but when she looked down she saw that she almost stepped on a dung beetle pushing a big ball of dung.
"I am so sorry Mr Dung Beetle. How are you and where are you going with that yucky big ball of dung?" she asked him.
"My stuff is not yucky, follow me and I will show you what yucky is!!!"
Sandy went with the dung beetle - when they got on the other side of the hill, she could not believe her eyes. There was a huge dump with rubbish. Old fridges and plastic bottles and computers, tyres and many more.
"Wow, you are right, this is really yucky..."
"You know what is the worst thing about all of this, even worse than the way it looks? Nothing can eat it."
"I do not understand. What do you mean eat it?" asked Sandy a little bit confused.
The dung beetle explained to her that everything in nature works in a cycle - it goes around and around.
The water moves in a cycle - it evaporates, turns into water droplets and falls back to earth and then evaporates again.
In the same way, a plant grows, an animal eats it, the plant and animal dies, goes back in the ground, gets taken up by the plants which grows again.
"Humans have invented waste and they make things that nothing can eat or the earth cannot swallow it to use again. Do you understand now?"
Sandy thought for a while and then realized how sad it is that we as humans are destroying nature.
She got an idea. "Why can we not just bury all the waste?"
"It will make earth sick and the plants and animals will die," the dung beetle said sadly.
Sandy felt sad and she wondered if there was anything that she could do to make it better.
"If everybody just not use so much stuff, and if they do try and use it over and over again instead of just buying new stuff and recycle and save electricity and water, the world will be a better place already."
"Recycling also works in a circle and the less things you throw away, the less waste there will be."
Sandy thought about this and she knew if she started telling people about this, they will tell others and if everybody just tries a little bit, it can make a huge difference.
"Now do you know why this dung ball is not yucky? I am recycling it and my family will eat it and eventually it will go back in the soil and help the plants and trees to grow."