“The scale of the plastics industry’s greenhouse gas emissions is staggering, but it’s equally concerning that few people in government or in the business community are even talking about it,” said Judith Enck, a former Environmental Protection Agency regional administrator and president of Beyond Plastics.
Also, the report found that petrochemical facilities tend to be clustered in just 18 largely low-income and minority communities, where 90% of the pollution occurs. With at least a dozen more plastic production plants under construction and 15 more planned, resulting emissions would undercut any gains made by phasing out coal power and shifting toward more renewable energy, Enck said.
