Action Alerts

Plastics harm our health and destroy our planet

What's At Stake

Plastics are everywhere. They are littering our beaches, choking marine life, poisoning communities at the fence line of petrochemical facilities, leaching into our food and water supplies, and ending up in our bodies. They are also major contributors to climate change. As a result, plastics are destroying our planet and harming our health.  

Read More

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, global annual production of plastic and plastic waste has more than doubled in the last 20 years alongside ever-growing rates of plastic consumption. Continuing to manufacture and use plastics at anywhere close to the current scale will undermine our climate progress, threaten the health of all people – especially those on the frontlines of petrochemical manufacturing and disposal facilities, and contribute to the biodiversity crisis. 

The EPA has acknowledged the negative impact that plastic pollution has on our environment and on public health, with underserved and overburdened communities being hit the hardest. That is why it released its Draft National Strategy to Prevent Plastic Pollution and the agency is listening to public feedback.  

The EPA’s current draft strategy is a good step in recognizing the critical role that the U.S. plays in addressing the plastic pollution problem, however, it is far too limited and lacks the bold goals that are needed to truly address the climate, health, and biodiversity harms caused by plastics across their lifecycle.  

Unfortunately, this draft fails to address the serious climate impacts of producing plastics, especially with the buildout of new and expanded facilities to make petrochemicals – chemicals made from oil and gas that are the building blocks of plastics and which oil and gas producers hope will create ongoing demand for their climate-harming products as we shift to renewable sources of energy. It understates the human health risks of plastics in the manufacturing process, the chemical additives used to produce plastics that leach out of the product and into our bodies, and our exposure and absorption of microplastics.  

This administration has made bold commitments on climate and environmental justice, but its draft strategy on plastics must be more ambitious to reach those goals. Join Earthjustice in urging the EPA to adopt a strategy that calls for the reduction and eventual phaseout of any non-essential manufacturing and use of plastics. 

Bottle caps are collected to be sent to a recycling factory for processing in Nakon Pathom, Thailand.
Plastic bottle caps. (Paula Bronstein / Getty Images)

Delivery to Environmental Protection Agency

Important Notice

Your message will be delivered to the Environmental Protection Agency and all information submitted may be placed in the public record. Do not submit confidential information.

By taking action, you will receive emails from Earthjustice. Change your mailing preferences or opt-out at any time. Learn more in our Privacy Policy. This Earthjustice action is hosted on EveryAction. Learn about EveryAction’s Privacy Policy.

Why is a phone number or prefix required on some action forms?

Trouble Viewing This Action?

If the action form is not loading above, please add earthjustice.org as a trusted website in your ad blocker or pause any ad blockers, and refresh this webpage. (Details.) If the action form still does not display, please report the problem to us at action@earthjustice.org. Thank you!

Your Actions Matter

Your messages make a difference, even if we have leaders who don't want to listen. Here's why.

You level the playing field.

Elected officials pay attention when they see that we are paying attention. Read more.

They may be hearing from industry lobbyists left and right, but hearing the stories of their constituents — that’s your power.

Our legislators serve at the pleasure of the people who gave them their job — you.

Make sure your elected officials know whose community and whose values they represent. When you contact your elected official, you’re putting a face and a name on an issue.

Whether or not you voted for them, they work for you, for the duration of their term.

Make sure your elected officials know whose community and whose values they represent. (Find your local, state, and federal elected officials.)

Your action is with us in court.

If a federal agency finalizes a harmful action, the record of public comments provides a basis for bringing them into court. Read more.

Throughout each of the public comment periods we alert you to, Earthjustice’s attorneys are researching and writing in-depth, technical comments to submit — detailing how the regulation could and should be stronger to protect the environment, our communities, and our planet.

We need you to join us — your specific experiences, knowledge, and voice are crucial to add to the Administrative Record through the comment periods.

Lawsuits we file that challenge weak or harmful federal regulations rely on what was submitted during the comment period. The court can only look at documents that are in the Administrative Record — including the public comments — to decide if the agency did something improper.

Your actions aid our litigation. Taking action and submitting comments during a comment period is substantively important.

It’s the law.

Federal agencies must pause what they’re doing and ask for — and consider — your comment. Read more.

Many of us may have never heard of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), but laws like these require our government to ask the public to weigh in before agencies adopt or change regulations.

Regulations essentially describe how federal agencies will carry out laws — including decisions that could undermine science, or weaken safeguards on public health.

Public comments are collected at various points throughout the federal government’s rulemaking process, including when a regulation is proposed and finalized. (Learn about the rulemaking process.) These comments become part of the official, legal public record — the “Administrative Record.”

When the public responds with a huge outpouring of support for environmental protections, these individual messages collectively undercut politicians' attempts to claim otherwise.

What this means is each of us can take a role in shaping the rules our government creates — and ensuring those rules are fair and effective.