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Plastics

Burning Plastic Waste for Household Fuel Endangers Millions 

People in low-income urban communities in the Global South without access to reliable energy sources are burning the toxic plastic waste inundating their communities to cook and heat their homes.

By Liza Gross

 A worker fries tofu over a furnace fueled by a combination of plastic waste, wood and coconut husks at a tofu factory on May 22, 2025, in Sidoarjo, Indonesia. Credit: Robertus Pudyanto/Getty Images
Demonstrators attend a Stand Up for Science rally to highlight the critical role of science in public health, environmental stewardship and education at the Civic Center Plaza in San Francisco on March 7. Credit: Gabrielle Lurie/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images

The Year in Climate: Attacks on Science, the Start of Trump’s Second Term and Surging Electricity Demand Foreshadow a Future Filled with Uncertainty

By Dan Gearino, ICN Staff
Diane Wilson outside the Formosa Plastics plant in Point Comfort, Texas, in November 2021. Credit: Mark Felix/AFP ia Getty Images

Diane Wilson Takes on Another Plastics Plant in Texas

By Dylan Baddour
A volunteer from the Ecological Observation and Wetlands Conservation collects plastic waste from a mangrove swamp on July 26 in Surabaya, Indonesia. Credit: Juni Kriswanto/AFP via Getty Images

Peeling Back the Curtain on Big Plastic’s False Solutions 

By Liza Gross
In 2021, Dr. Robert Bullard, from right, talks with Fifth Ward residents Water Mallett, Doris Brown, then-EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan and Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner during Regan's tour of Houston to highlight environmental justice concerns. Credit: Elizabeth Conley/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images

Petrochemical Expansion in Texas Will Fall Heavily on Communities of Color, Study Finds 

By Dylan Baddour
An aerial view of trucks unloading and spreading trash over a hill at the Chiquita Canyon Landfill in Castaic, Calif., in February 2024. Credit: Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

California Is Finally Updating Its Methane Landfill Rule

By Liza Gross
An Indigenous Guna scientist monitors a nesting leatherback sea turtle on a beach in Armila, Panama. Credit: Teresa Tomassoni/Inside Climate News

Deadly in Small Doses: New Research Shows the Lethal Effects of Ingested Plastic on Marine Animals

By Teresa Tomassoni
A view of Formosa Plastics’ Point Comfort complex, near the site of Exxon’s planned plant on the Gulf Coast of Texas. Credit: Dylan Baddour/Inside Climate News

Exxon Steps Back From Texas Gulf Coast Plastics Plant

By Dylan Baddour
Plastic pellets, known as nurdles, coat the ground at the site of a train derailment near ExxonMobil’s Baytown facility in Texas on Dec. 6, 2024. Credit: Rebekah F. Ward/Houston Chronicle via Getty Images

Communities Around the World Find Plastic Pellets in Their Local Waterways

By Lauren Dalban
The Three Rivers Waterkeeper found tiny “nurdles” in the water and banks of Raccoon Creek in western Pennsylvania. Credit: Three Rivers Waterkeeper

Pennsylvania Plastics Pollution Settlement Could Set a National Precedent for Control of Pellets

By Jon Hurdle
Along Texas' Gulf coast, the oil and gas infrastructure in Corpus Christi. Credit: Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Corpus Christi Folds on Its Desalination Gamble

By Dylan Baddour
People walk a beach along Lake Michigan in Whiting, Ind. Credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images

Great Lakes Microplastics Research Could Inform National and Global Policy

By Sarah Mattalian
The Shell plant in Beaver County, Pa., produces polyethylene, a type of single-use plastic, using ethane. Credit: Mark Dixon/CC BY 2.0

Pennsylvania Lured Shell to the State With a $1.65 Billion Tax Break. Now the Company Wants to Sell Its Plant

By Kiley Bense
Waste pickers carry plastic materials to recycle at the Gioto dumping site in Nakuru, Kenya. Credit: James Wakibia/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

From Landfills and Recycling Programs to Desks in Offices, Toxic Chemicals in Plastics Poison Workers

By Liza Gross
Delegates rest outside of the assembly hall in Geneva, after talks aimed at striking a landmark treaty on plastic pollution ended with no consensus. Credit: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images

Plastic Pollution Talks in Geneva End Without Treaty

By Bob Berwyn
Luis Vayas Valdivieso, chair of the U.N. Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution, speaks during the second part of the fifth session of the INC on Tuesday in Geneva, Switzerland. Credit: Florian Fussstetter/UNEP

Nations Meet in Geneva in a Final Push to End Plastic Pollution

By Liza Gross
Chair Luis Vayas Valdivieso listens to a comment by a delegate during the fifth session of the U.N. Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution in Busan, South Korea, on Dec. 1, 2024. Credit: Anthony Wallace/AFP via Getty Images

Global Plastics Talks Set to Resume Next Month Must Prioritize Environment and Health, Experts Say

By Liza Gross
Erik Jon Olson makes decorative quilts out of single use plastic. Credit: Courtesy of Erik Jon Olson

The Unexpected Beauty and Deep Meaning of Plastic-Waste Art

Interview by Jenni Doering, Living on Earth
StarPet operates a 1.3 million-square-foot factory on 30 acres along Pineview Road in Asheboro, N.C. Credit: Lisa Sorg/Inside Climate News

N.C. Has Allowed a Likely Carcinogen Into Three Rivers Serving 900,000 People

By Lisa Sorg

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