Anonymous,

A major oil company is building a giant plastics factory in Pennsylvania, at a time when the public is calling for less plastic, not more.1

The factory will produce more than a million tons of plastic each year -- primarily in the form of tiny pellets, which are the building blocks of everything from plastic bags to phone cases.2

The plastic made from these pellets will last long after these items have served their purpose, slowly breaking down into microscopic pieces, which will pollute our future and threaten our health for hundreds of years.3

We're in the middle of a plastic pollution crisis and we need to be reducing our reliance on plastic, especially single-use items that we don't need such as foam cups, and plastic straws and bags.

Together with our national network, we have a plan to move our country beyond plastic, but we need your support. Donate today to support our efforts on this campaign, and all of our other work to advocate for the public interest.

More than 8 million tons of new plastic waste ends up in our oceans every year, polluting our water and endangering our health.4,5

"Plastic really doesn't go away," said Roland Geyer, a professor of industrial ecology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, to The New York Times. "It just accumulates and ends up in the wrong places. And we just don't know the long-term implications of having all this plastic everywhere in the natural environment. It is like this giant global experiment and we can't just pull the plug if it goes wrong."6

But oil and plastics companies are ramping up plastic production. This facility is one of more than a dozen plastics plants that are either under construction or proposed across the country -- which collectively cost billions of dollars.7,8

This defies common sense. To protect our health and our future, we should be working to use fewer plastic products, not more -- especially single-use plastic items that we don't even need.

Our national network is working to introduce and pass bills that would help move our country beyond plastic. But to advocate for the policies we need, and to change the conversation, we need your support. Donate today.

Here's why I know U.S. PIRG is the right group for the job: Our national network has been making progress for decades to reduce plastic waste. We've won more than 50 pro-recycling laws, plastic bag bans and other policies -- starting with the nation's first bottle recycling law way back in the early 1970s.

And recently, our national network helped more than triple the number of single-use plastic bag bans in just two months: with Maine, Vermont, Connecticut, Oregon and Delaware added to the list.

Right now, we're running campaigns to reduce single-use plastic waste in states across the country -- including eliminating plastic foam cups and containers and single-use plastic bags, requiring plastic straws and utensils to be offered on request only, requiring the recyclability of packaging, and more.

We're also shining a spotlight on the issue in the media and online, speaking out across the country, and our national network is going door to door to spread the word and mobilize public support.

I know that with your support we can move our country beyond plastic. Donate today to ensure we have the resources we need to keep up our efforts.

Thank you,

Faye Park
President

1. Michael Corkery, "A Giant Factory Rises to Make a Product Filling Up the World: Plastic," The New York Times, August 12, 2019.
2. Michael Corkery, "A Giant Factory Rises to Make a Product Filling Up the World: Plastic," The New York Times, August 12, 2019.
3. Michael Corkery, "A Giant Factory Rises to Make a Product Filling Up the World: Plastic," The New York Times, August 12, 2019.
4. Jambeck, et. al., "Plastic waste inputs from land into the ocean," Science, 2015.
5. Brian Bienkowski, "Plastic threatens our health from before production to long after it's thrown away: Report," Environmental Health News, February 19, 2019.
6. Michael Corkery, "A Giant Factory Rises to Make a Product Filling Up the World: Plastic," The New York Times, August 12, 2019.
7. Michael Corkery, "A Giant Factory Rises to Make a Product Filling Up the World: Plastic," The New York Times, August 12, 2019.
8. Matthew Taylor, "$180bn Investment in Plastic Factories Feeds Global Packaging Binge," The Guardian, December 26, 2017.