NEW DELHI (AP) — In India, a trio of unlikely heroes is waging war against the tsunami of plastic threatening to engulf India.
A poor garbage collector who fishes trash from a filthy river, a 9th-grade student who convinces posh restaurants to give up plastic straws and a businessman whose company makes plates and bowls from palm leaves are doing what they can to reduce plastic garbage.
India produces more than 68 million tons of trash every day. More than 17,000 tons of it is plastic. That requires immense dumps, which in cities like New Delhi, mean hills of stinking trash up to 50 meters tall. Last year, two people were killed when a large part of one of the city's dumps crashed down onto them.