Meet 13-Year-Old ‘No Plastic Ninja,’ Who Has Written a Book and Is on a Mission to Change Law (Exclusive)

Johnny Dodd
·2 min read

Eighth-grader Madhvi Chittoor is leading a new generation of environmental activists in the fight against plastic pollution

<p>Madhvi4EcoEthics</p> Madhvi Chittoor

Madhvi4EcoEthics

Madhvi Chittoor

One night when Madhvi Chittoor was five years old she watched the eco documentary Midway: A Plastic Island about a pristine Pacific atoll blanketed by plastic trash washed up from the ocean and her life was instantly transformed.

“I cried that night,” Chittoor, now 13, tells PEOPLE, “and told my mom, ‘I really want to do something about this.’ ”

Since then, the teen dynamo from Arvada, Co., has emerged as a one-girl army on a crusade to bring awareness to the toll plastic pollution is taking on our environment — and to push policy makers into creating laws to curb its use.

<p>Madhvi4EcoEthics</p> “I will never stop fighting,” says Madhvi (at a cleanup of Colorado’s South Platte River in 2019).

Madhvi4EcoEthics

“I will never stop fighting,” says Madhvi (at a cleanup of Colorado’s South Platte River in 2019).

Related: What This Scientist Says You Need to Know About Hundreds of Thousands of Plastic Particles in Your Drinking Water (Exclusive)

“Adults are going along as though it’s business as usual,” says Chittoor, explaining what drives her. “But children are the ones who are going to inherit this planet.”

For the past eight years, Chittoor — who is known as the No Plastic Ninja (she has a black belt in taekwando) — has published the children’s book Is Plastic My Food, spoken about the environment at the United Nations and collected thousands of signatures to ban styrofoam lunch trays in her school district in 2019.

“It affected 86,000 students in all 155 schools,” says Chittoor. “It was a very big win for the public, eliminating over 28 million styrofoam trays from our landfills.”

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Her success on the county level emboldened Chittoor to push for even broader legislation. And in January 2024 a new state law — Colorado’s Plastic Pollution Reduction Act — banning styrofoam containers and single-use plastic bags that the eighth-grader helped champion went into effect.

<p>Madhvi4EcoEthics</p> Madhvi (in 2021) watches Colorado governor Jared Polis sign the state’s plastic and styrofoam ban bill into law.

Madhvi4EcoEthics

Madhvi (in 2021) watches Colorado governor Jared Polis sign the state’s plastic and styrofoam ban bill into law.

Related: Scientist Invents Next-Generation Filter That Removes 'Really Scary' Plastic Particles from Drinking Water (Exclusive)

“I spoke with so many business owners and nearly 30 mayors all over Colorado, even in rural areas,” says Chittoor, who plays a half dozen musical instruments and appeared in the Guinness World Records when she was eight after becoming the world's youngest professional music producer. “And they all supported it. I was extremely thrilled and and happy when it passed.”

Her latest crusade involves working with state legislators to ban the use of so-called “forever chemicals” found in everything from non-stick cookware to artificial turf.

“Plastic pollution is literally everywhere,” says Chittoor. “But I'm optimistic as well as very determined—and I'm never going to give up.”

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