While going to college in Santa Barbara, California - Kate Nelson looked around in the middle of a party at the sea of Red Solo cups half filled with beer and thought that there must be another option. After venturing out into the Great Pacific Trash Gyre, volunteering at Jean Michel Cousteau’s Ocean Futures Society, and becoming non-reliant on disposable plastic for over 10 years now, Kate Nelson is a Plastic-Free Mermaid.