Juhi Chawla wants to raise awareness about plastic's harmful effects

Mumbai: Actress, entrepreneur and social activist Juhi Chawla on Saturday sought to create awareness about menace of using plastic.

"Using plastic has an alarming effect not only in society but in the world too. The Supreme Court says unless we examine a ban on plastic, the next generation will be threatened with more serious threats than the atom bomb. Plastic can't decompose. We see plastics in streets, beaches, rivers and everywhere. Every piece that is made with plastic stays for next one thousand years. Every piece of plastic has toxic substances," she said at the Rotary club here.

"My brother-in-law mentioned to me that there are islands of plastics in the ocean. He also told me their size, and that's when it shocked me the most. In the North Pacific Ocean, islands of floating plastic are almost the size of Africa," she added.

"We are damaging the environment to such a big degree and many of us don't even know about it. Plastic is poisoning the water. Every day we are creating cancers for ourselves by consuming food in plastic. We must think about what kind of development is this? " she asked, advising people to carry a cloth or jute bag for shopping, not using plastic cutlery at parties, or plastic bottles, which are are damaging for tropical countries.