The Canal Youth Concilio is doing some street sweeping in an effort to save the planet, clean up the neighborhood and keep cars out of the impound lot.

The collective, a teen offshoot of the adult group El Concilio, has launched a litter removal campaign and recycling cooperative in San Rafael's Canal area not just for environmental reasons, but also to advocate for a city moratorium on towing cars during street sweeping. Organizers hope that by cleaning up the streets, they can convince the city to issue tickets to people who fail to move their cars on street sweeping days, rather than tow the vehicles.

"It's just too extreme," said Chris Green, a Canal Alliance community organizer in charge of Concilio projects.

In its third year, El Concilio was created by the San Rafael-based Canal Alliance, Parent Services Project and Canal Welcome Center, with funding from a grant from the San Francisco-based Stuart Foundation to empower Canal residents with a voice in community projects and decision-making. Canal Alliance, in business since 1982, provides services for Canal families such as bilingual education, immigration legal services, academic support and economic and leadership development.

The "Clean Up Canal Days" campaign was launched in late February, drawing 25 youth and adult volunteers who collected more than 20 industrial-sized bags of trash from neighborhood streets and sidewalks.

Tuesday's second cleanup was held on Cesar Chavez Day - the

birthday of the Mexican-American farm worker, labor leader and civil rights activist who co-founded the United Farm Workers.

"I think it's a great thing that we're starting to realize how important our environment is," said Luis Mejia, 17, a senior at San Rafael High School and a member of the Youth Concilio who came out Tuesday to help pick up the trash.

"I think it's a very good thing to do and very important for us as a future generation to live better, have better lives and to be healthier," he said.

Youth Concilio members also have developed a building-to-building education campaign aimed at spreading the word about recycling and green living.

This spring, three Canal residential apartment buildings will be part of a pilot project to introduce Canal residents to the neighborhood greening campaign. The Youth Concilio will hold town hall-style "chats" to educate residents about the movement. It's hoped the effort will teach people how to recycle in their buildings and make the connection between cleaners streets and towing during street sweeping days, organizers said.

Recycling responsibilities for the three buildings have been assigned to tenants who earn their living by recycling. Designees will sort and clean recyclable items, pick up trash from the buildings' grounds and sidewalks and deliver the load to the recycling center using large industrial tricycles purchased with grant money to help haul the materials. The recyclers also will keep track of how much the Canal is recycling.

Tuesday's cleanup featured the three large trikes, which riders said make the job easier.

"Muy bueno!" said Felix Marroquin, a Canal resident and professional recycler in charge of one of the building's recycling efforts. "They're strong and they can carry a lot and it's also faster," he said of the trike, which he uses to carry an estimated 40 pounds of recycling to the recycling center every day.

Supervisor Steve Kinsey turned out Tuesday to laud the effort and check out the $750 trikes, made by Industrial Bikes of Pasadena, Texas.

"I especially appreciate your efforts in cleaning up the Canal and hopefully taking away problems of parking on the street," he told the students. "I also wanted to see what these cool new tricycles look like."

Kinsey aide David Escobar is involved in a Bay Area-wide campaign to educate the Spanish language and indigenous communities on green living. He is helping facilitate a Bay Area Spanish-language summit on the green economy to be held in Marin in the fall. Members of the Youth Concilio have been invited to present their recycling cooperative and greening campaign to summit attendees as a model for other Bay Area communities, officials said.

"I'm quite happy to see that young people are stepping up to the plate and seeing the need to work actively and educate the larger community about the issue," Escobar said.

CLARIFICATION: The Canal Youth Concilio project is sponsored by a collaboration of the Canal Alliance, Parent Services Project and Canal Welcome Center. A story Wednesday did not list all parties involved; this version has been updated.

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Contact Jennifer Upshaw via e-mail at jupshaw@marinij.com