ARVADA, Colo. — Twelve-year-old Madhvi Chittoor has been on a mission for the past seven years to raise public awareness and fight for children’s rights when it comes to the environment and climate change. She’s been working since 2016, when she was just 5 years old, to ban the use of plastic bags and Styrofoam containers in Colorado.
“When I was 5 years old, I watched a CNN documentary called 'Midway the Plastic Island' and it was really sad,” Chittoor said. “It showed the great Pacific Ocean garbage patch. Albatrosses and aquatic animals were eating those plastics and they died because they could not digest plastics.”
Chittoor said in 2016 she wrote a children’s book titled, “Is Plastic My Food?” In 2017, she founded her nonprofit organization called Madhvi4EcoEthics to bring awareness to plastics and other pollutants.
“I told my mom, ‘I really want to do something about it’,” Chittoor said. “So that’s how I got inspired to start taking action and now it’s a big passion of mine.”
In 2018, she worked with federal and state leaders to declare April as “Plastic and Styrofoam Pollution Awareness Month." She’s organized river cleanups, met with state legislatures, spoken at climate rallies, met with 34 mayors of cities and various businesses across the state to pass eco-friendly state bills.
“All the plastic bags and Styrofoam which were first manufactured (in) the 1950’s still exists somewhere in the world, floating in our air, water, soil and our food chain,” Chittoor said. “Styrofoam leaches styrene which is a carcinogenic chemical into our food when it comes into contact with it and its also nonbiodegradable.”
Her dream became a reality in 2021 when Governor Jared Polis signed into law the State of Colorado’s Plastic Pollution Reduction Act, also known as House Bill 21-1162, to reduce and mitigate plastic pollution in Colorado. The statewide plastic bag ban went into effect Jan. 1.
“I am extremely thrilled and happy that the law has now become affect since Jan. 1 and it’s a really big win for our ecosystems,” Chittoor said. “I did a lot to try to get the bill passed. I did many speeches, signature campaigns, meetings, and phone calls with many legislators as well as businesses across Colorado.”
Madhvi was named child advisor for the United Nations where she continues to fight for the rights of children. She’s the UN’s youngest advisor and the only one from the U.S. She said she hopes other states and countries take notice of what’s happening in Colorado.
“I think Colorado would be a role model,” Chittoor said. “So that now all states will do this ban and the U.S will be the role model for all countries.”
For more information about Madhvi, click here.
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