Mrs. Bombastic

With her sultry voice, and evil, captivating stare, she lurks outside fast food restaurants and on beaches – encouraging people to toss their plastic bottles, forks and straws to the ground.

She charges at anyone she spots trying to recycle – calling them “Goons!” – while rattling her huge bottle of FROOTI mango soda filled with shells.

While many nations contribute to plastic pollution, sadly, today India creates the most plastic pollution of any country.

Plastic pollution of our oceans is one of the world’s most challenging environmental disasters – with tons of discarded plastic waste entering the ocean each year – from toothbrushes to floating plastic bags – which are mistaken by sea turtles as jellyfish.

Rivers and streams carry plastic waste into the ocean from cities, while thousands of discarded and lost plastic fishing nets entangle and kill marine life.

Smaller pieces of plastic are mistaken by marine life for food. And even the tiniest of plastic fragments, known as micro plastics, never completely decay. They enter the food chain starting with fish who eat them . . . and end up in larger animals and humans who eat these fish . . . with unknown consequences.

Approximately 80% of all plastic created ends up in landfills and nature – with much of the landfill plastic eventually washing into oceans. The other 10% is incinerated, and only another 10% is recycled.

There are five massive plastic garbage islands or “garbage patches” which have been created by swirling ocean currents and winds, called gyres, which, like whirlpools, have pulled the plastic waste together. The largest and most well known of these is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, between California and Hawaii.