Press Release – September 10, 2025

New Report Exposes Scale of Plastics Crisis in Building Materials and Escalating Impacts to Health, Fire, and Climate

Habitable’s new report, “Designing Out Plastics: A Blueprint for Healthier Building Materials” shows better building materials are available and now used by leading firms.

A groundbreaking new report released by Habitable this week warns that plastics widely used in building construction are harming human health, increasing fire toxicity, disproportionately impacting frontline communities, and fueling climate change. The report exposes the hidden dangers of plastic building materials like PVC (vinyl) and polystyrene, while highlighting healthier alternatives already on the market.

Habitable’s new report, Designing Out Plastics: A Blueprint for Healthier Building Materials, investigates the life cycle impacts of plastic building products, from vinyl flooring and siding, to PVC pipes, insulation, and paint. Plastic building materials release toxic chemicals and microplastics linked to cancer and reproductive harm, make buildings burn hotter and faster, and contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. The report identifies how the life cycle harms of plastics disproportionately impact children as well as communities of color, Indigenous peoples, and low-wealth neighborhoods, especially near manufacturing and disposal sites.

“Plastics are fossil fuels by another name, and work against both climate efforts and pollution reduction,” said Gina Ciganik, Chief Executive Officer of Habitable, and former real estate developer. “There are real health and environmental consequences of surrounding ourselves in  plastic homes, schools, and workplaces.”

Key Takeaways:

• The plastics crisis in buildings is expanding fast. 
  • Plastics in buildings are growing fast, and without intervention, plastic use in construction is projected to nearly double by 2050. 
  • Construction already accounts for 17% of global plastic use, second only to packaging, and the sector uses 70% of all PVC and 30% of all polystyrene (two of the most toxic plastics) worldwide.

• The harms to health and communities are rising. 
  • Health impacts: Chemicals used to make plastic building materials are tied to cancer, infertility, obesity, developmental harm in children, and asthma. Microplastics, which building materials generate, are found in hearts, brains, and placentas. 
  • Fire impacts: Plastic building materials burn hotter, faster, and release more toxics than natural materials, endangering occupants and firefighters.
  • Community impacts: Communities near plastic plants used for building materials—such as Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley”—bear the brunt of toxic emissions.

• The solutions to plastics in buildings are scaling up. 
  • Healthier alternatives are already available and can significantly reduce reliance on plastic building materials. The report features multiple examples of institutions leading the way. 

“When we build with plastic, we perpetuate a toxic legacy, one that comes with higher cancer rates, outsized health risks, and more vulnerability–from the fenceline of petrochemical facilities to your living room,” said Heather McTeer Toney, executive director of Beyond Petrochemicals, which allies with communities to stop the expansion of petrochemicals in the U.S. “This is a threat that lives in our walls and lurks under our houses. With this report, Habitable has created an essential guide to understand the risks of plastic in our homes, define safer alternatives, and move toward a sustainable, resilient future.”

A Call to the Building Sector, Policymakers, and Investors

The report calls on architects and developers to lead the transition away from plastics in building construction. It also calls on policymakers to phase out the most hazardous plastics (PVC, polystyrene), investors to fund no/low-plastic innovation, and philanthropy to prioritize plastic reduction as a strategy for climate justice and health equity. The report highlights real-world examples of leadership, from Minnesota Housing’s adoption of Habitable’s guidance to the Lower Sioux Indian Community’s Seed to Sovereignty hempcrete housing initiative.

A Blueprint for Change

The report features Habitable’s Informed™ product guidance that translates deep scientific research into a red-to-green ranking system for building materials, empowering architects, builders, developers, and policymakers to make healthier choices. Habitable outlines four immediate actions for the industry:

1. Minimize new material use and reuse existing products.
2. Select healthier, no/low-plastic alternatives when new products are necessary.
3. Choose long-lived, timeless materials that remain in place for their full service life.
4. Evaluate recycling claims critically, recognizing that recycling often perpetuates plastics’ harms.

“Healthcare facilities must be the first to prioritize the reduction or elimination of plastic building materials,” says Eric Corey Freed, Principal and Sustainability Director at CannonDesign. CannonDesign uses linoleum flooring—a healthier, no/low plastic product—for healthcare facilities, including a children’s care center in Colorado. “These places exist to improve health for vulnerable populations. That’s why reducing toxic exposures, while delivering reliable cost and performance benefits, is an imperative.”

Habitable’s Informed™ Product Guidance is available at https://informed.habitablefuture.org/plastics.

About Habitable

Habitable (formerly Healthy Building Network) has a vision: all people and the planet thrive when the materials economy is in balance with nature. Our team of researchers and building experts activate science to reduce pollution, mitigate climate change, and create a healthier and more equitable future for all. 

Our Informed™ initiative supports built environment practitioners in selecting products made with safer chemicals and no/low plastics to improve the health of humans and the environment. 

This work was generously supported by a grant from Beyond Petrochemicals.

Report and resources available at: https://habitablefuture.org/