Dear John,
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Help protect our air and water from plastic pollution: Donate $10 or more to Friends of the Earth today.
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Every minute, the equivalent of an entire garbage truck of plastic is dumped into our oceans, killing endangered marine life and polluting our oceans. Donate now so Friends of the Earth can fight plastic pollution.
But plastic’s impact goes beyond its waste problem. Nearly all plastic comes from fossil fuels, and plastic production releases greenhouse gases and cancer-causing chemicals, which disproportionately harm communities of color.
And right now, while people are struggling and desperately need scarce stimulus dollars, Big Plastic is capitalizing on pandemic-induced fear to maximize its profits. The industry is spreading lies about the safety of single-use plastic bags, lobbying to roll back hard-won bans on single-use plastic products, and pushing for a massive $1 billion bailout.
Thanks to your support, here at Friends of the Earth we’re fighting back: countering fake science with facts, exposing how Big Plastic is hiring new lobbyists to manipulate policy, launching a campaign calling on the government to keep single-use plastic bans in place, and calling on Congress to focus relief efforts on workers and communities on the frontlines of the COVID-19 crisis -- rather than big polluters like the plastics industry. We urgently need your support to keep up the fight.
Help protect our oceans and our climate from Big Plastic, John: Donate $10 or more to Friends of the Earth today.
If you've saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation will go through immediately:
Plastics make up a large part of the petrochemical industry, which transforms raw material from fossil fuels into a wide variety of products, including packaging, single-use cutlery, beauty supplies, styrofoam, and even agricultural products like fertilizers and pesticides.
Plastic packaging and single-use plastics have particularly drawn outrage, and it’s not hard to see why: Around 80% of land-sourced marine pollution comes from single-use plastic bags.
To make matters worse, plastic breaks down into micro-particles that can last for 500 years or more. That means they will keep on polluting our aquatic ecosystems, choking sea turtles, driving blue whales closer to extinction, and killing other vital marine life like dolphins.
But plastics have further environmental consequences. Every stage of plastics’ “life cycle” contributes to climate chaos.
First, the building blocks for plastic come from extracting oil and gas, especially through U.S. fracking -- which is a major driver of climate change.
Then, plastic production plants require huge amounts of fossil fuels to run, and they emit greenhouse gases and noxious fumes. Plastic production is expected to double in the next 20 years: In anticipation of reduced demand for fossil fuels, the oil and gas industry is ramping up petrochemical (plastics) production.
Finally, after plastic is used, it’s rarely recycled. Most of it degrades in our oceans or landfills, releasing greenhouse gases as it does so. Some of it gets incinerated, which releases greenhouse gases and cancer-causing toxins -- especially harmful for people living near incineration plants, often communities of color. This is an environmental justice catastrophe.
Taking a step back to look at this bigger picture, it’s clear that Big Plastic is in bed with Big Oil and Gas. And it’s up to us to stop them. But we can’t do it without you, John.
We have to fight back -- for our oceans, our climate, and our lives -- before it's too late. Donate $10 or more to Friends of the Earth today.
If you've saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation will go through immediately:
Here are just some of the ways Big Plastic has been exploiting the coronavirus crisis to line their pockets:
- The Plastics Industry Association is shamelessly claiming that single-use plastic bags are safer than reusable bags. In fact, reusable bags are NOT more likely to transmit the coronavirus than money or hands.
- However, this dubious science has already led to a number of states, like New York and Massachusetts, delaying or suspending bans of single-use plastic bags.
- The same association is influence-peddling on the federal level, including sending a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, calling on him to make a public statement supporting the scientifically questionable claim that single-use plastics are safer.
- Groups representing the plastics/petrochemical industry, including the American Chemistry Council (representing corporations like Dow Chemical and ExxonMobil Chemical Company), are seeking $1 billion in taxpayer dollars to bail out plastic recycling. (But here’s the thing: Plastic producers already shift the costs of recycling onto taxpayers. And the U.S. only recycles up to 10% of our plastic, partly thanks to anti-recycling lobbying from the same corporations that use plastics in the first place!)
- And the industry is requesting that the businesses making single-use plastics be deemed “essential.”
Right now, we’re limited to scarce stimulus dollars. And polluters are spending big to distort the direction of coronavirus aid. With spare cash to hire lobbyists, the petrochemical industry doesn’t need bailouts. Instead, workers and communities on the frontlines of the crisis do.
That’s what Friends of the Earth is fighting for right now, as part of our vision for a just world. All Americans deserve to live in clean, safer, and healthy communities. And we need to live in harmony with the ecosystems on which we rely. With your help, together we can make that a reality.
Help fight back against Big Plastic -- and fight for wildlife, our health, and our planet. Donate $10 or more to Friends of the Earth today.
If you've saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation will go through immediately:
Thank you,
Marcie Keever,
Oceans and vessels program director,
Friends of the Earth
