Truthout
plastics
![Plastic and other garbage polluting the Adriatic Sea, pictured on July 31, 2020.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2021/07/2021_0720-plastic-pollution-oceans-400x300.jpg)
Drastic Measures Needed to Curb Plastic Pollution in Oceans by 2050
A journal article and report issued simultaneously describe a challenging path toward reducing plastic pollution.
![Plastic containers piled up at the recycling center in Wellsville, New York.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2021/06/GettyImages-1289236032-400x300.jpg)
Latinx and Low-Income Communities Are Paying the Costs of Plastic Pollution
The plastic industry lobby, backed by the fossil fuels industry, is opposing efforts to hold it accountable.
![A person walks along the rebuilt Industrial Canal levee wall in the Lower Ninth Ward on May 18, 2015, in New Orleans, Louisiana.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2020/11/GettyImages-474132874-400x300.jpg)
Army Corps Suspends Permit for Toxic Plastics Complex in “Chemical Alley”
Proposed emissions from the plant would triple the levels of cancer-causing chemicals in St. James Parish, Louisiana.
![The Colonial Sugar Refinery in Gramercy, Louisiana, was constructed in 1902 and was the first operating refinery to be placed on the National Register of Historic Places.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2020/09/4521489405_27a28a1f05_o-400x300.jpg)
If We Don’t Act Now, the Entire US Could Become a “Cancer Alley”
Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley” is a warning for what could become the norm if Trump and the plastics industry get their way.
![RISE St. James activist Sharon Lavigne speaks during a Juneteenth ceremony held Friday at a recently-discovered cemetery on old plantation grounds in St. James Parish, Louisiana. Formosa, a massive plastics company, is building a massive petrochemical complex at the site.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2020/06/sharon-ceremony-400x300.jpg)
A Giant Plastics Company Tried to Halt a Juneteenth Ceremony for Buried Slaves
A court upheld the rights of residents in Louisiana's “Death Alley” to observe the holiday on hallowed grounds.
![Diane Wilson kayaking to the fence line of Formosa’s Point Comfort plant to check for nurdles newly discharged from the plant on January 15, 2020.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2020/01/2020_0123_plastic-pollution-01-400x300.jpg)
Despite Lawsuit, Activists Find Evidence Plant in Texas Still Polluting Water
The plant has violated the terms of the largest settlement in a Clean Water Act lawsuit so far.
![Household waste is sorted at a recycling plant in the village of Myachkovo near Kolomna, Russia, December 11, 2019.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2020/01/2020_0105-recycling-400x300.jpg)
Humanity Can’t Recycle Its Way Out of Consumption Problems
The documentary “The Story of Plastic” points the finger at the fossil fuel industry for our plastic pollution crisis.
![Bundles of plastic for recycling](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2020/01/2020_0102-plastic-recycling-400x300.jpg)
Plastics Industry’s Greenwashing Aggravates Environmental and Health Crises
Responsibility for the plastics recycling crisis belongs to the corporations that have created it.
![A septic truck spreads waste on farm land.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2019/12/2019_1226-septic-farm-land-400x300.jpg)
Yes, Food Is Grown in Sewage Waste. That’s a Problem.
The EPA and states must insist municipalities investigate alternative methods for reuse of sewage wastes.
![U.S. regulatory agencies are pushing to discredit independent evidence of harm while favoring pro-industry science.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2019/12/GettyImages-129368523-400x300.jpg)
What Will It Take to Rid Our Store Shelves of BPA and Other Dangerous Chemicals?
U.S. regulatory agencies are pushing to discredit independent evidence of harm while favoring pro-industry science.