John,

More than 270 community and conservation organizations are calling on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to rein in pollution from industrial plants that make plastic. Right now the industry is filling our waterways with tiny plastic pellets and toxic chemicals — and being allowed to do so by lax rules from decades ago. It has to stop.

Tell the EPA we have a plastic pollution crisis: It has to fix those outdated rules and, using the Clean Water Act, ban those companies from discharging plastic pellets and other toxic pollutants.

From the deepest sea trenches to the most remote islands, plastic is suffocating sea turtles, starving seabirds and wrecking ecosystems. An estimated 8 million tons of plastic trash are dumped into our oceans every year.

On top of that, the facilities producing all the plastic — often located in low-income areas along the Gulf Coast and in Appalachia — are poisoning communities with deadly carcinogens.

Industry giants have announced plans to dramatically expand plastics production over the next decade, so now's the time to act.

Insist that the EPA do its job and protect our communities and wildlife from plastic pollution.