Garfield-shaped phones have been appearing on France’s coastlines for 35 years — and finally, the source of the mysterious kitty litter has been revealed.
The environmental group Ar Viltansou recently found the remains of a shipping container, along with scattered orange parts, near a sea cave in the Brittany region in western France.
The discovery was chronicled by FranceInfo journalists, who accompanied the group.
The activists were tipped off by a farmer who said he and his brother saw phones featuring the comic strip cat wash up during a storm in the early ’80s, the outlet reported Tuesday.
The siblings found the container in a coastal area of Finistere only accessible during low tide.
The Facebook page for the local marine park said the container was lost in 1983 — and bits and pieces of the novelty phones have been picked up “almost daily” for years.
The amount of plastic waste in waters around the world has reached alarming levels.
WATCH: Plastic pollution crisis — How waste ends up in our oceans
According to the United Nations, eight million tonnes of it ends up in oceans each year. In several recent cases, dead whales were found with stomachs full of plastic junk.
Garfield, the lasagne-loving feline who hates Mondays, made his debut in a comic strip 40 years ago.
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