READ HABITABLE’S NEW REPORTDesigning Out Plastics: A Blueprint for Healthier Building Materials
PollutionAn innovative method to identify chemical content of building materials and implications for global plastic pollution reduction
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Despite being the second largest user of plastic after packaging, the building and construction sector is often excluded from plastic-reduction efforts, in part due to a lack of transparency of the chemical content of materials.
In this peer-reviewed paper published in the journal Environmental Science: Advances, Habitable’s researchers present an innovative methodology to estimate the amount of plastic polymers and chemicals of concern in many common building materials. Their analysis reveals how prevalent plastics and associated chemicals are in many common building materials. In doing so, the paper aims to support research and inform policies that can reduce the plastic pollution harming humans and the planet.
Climate ChangeHow Plastics Fuel Wildfires & How to Rebuild Better
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This special report from Habitable and Plastic Pollution Coalition reveals how the built environment is full of toxic plastic, making wildfires worse—and how there is opportunity to build back better, with sustainable materials.
The report presents key findings about the links between plastics and wildfires, focusing on the case study of the January 2025 wildfires that burned through Los Angeles, California—an example of our increasingly plastic cities. It seeks to inform leaders in architecture, building, design, engineering, and policy spaces about how communities at risk of and/or affected by wildfires can build and rebuild better with safer, plastic-free materials.
HealthSafer States: An Alliance for a Healthier World
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Safer States is a national alliance of environmental health groups led by state-based organizations working towards a healthier and more just future.
By addressing critical issues such as toxic chemicals, plastics, and climate change, Safer States empowers collective action through its extensive network and capacity-building initiatives. The organization’s resources focus on ensuring clean air and water, holding polluters accountable, and promoting the development of safer consumer products. Safer States offers valuable tools and support for creating safer solutions for human health and the environment, including a bill tracker that identifies state policies that move the needle toward achieving a healthier world.
HealthPlanetary Boundaries
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This website explores the concept of planetary boundaries, a framework of nine key Earth system processes that humanity must stay within to ensure long-term sustainability and avoid irreversible environmental harm.
Climate ChangeHow Big Oil is using toxic chemicals as a lifeline – and how we can stop it
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Earthjustice lays out the pillars of the argument against the oil and gas industry’s push for a petrochemical boom, which threatens to lock in more climate pollution and toxic chemicals in already overburdened low-income and minority communities.
HealthPlanetary Health Alliance
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The Planetary Health Alliance is a global consortium of over 400 organizations from 60+ countries dedicated to studying and addressing the effects of global environmental change on human health.
PollutionChasing Off a Polluting “Chemical Recycling” Plant in PA
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This spring, Save Our Susquehanna (SOS), a grassroots group in central Pennsylvania, successfully halted Houston-based Encina’s proposed “chemical recycling” plant, one of the largest proposals in the nation.
On April 18, after two years of local opposition, Encina announced it would not proceed with the plant in Point Township, Pennsylvania. This decision marks a significant victory for Pennsylvanians, achieved through the determined efforts of SOS and support from The Climate Reality Project, Clean Air Council, GAIA, and Beyond Plastics. Read on to learn how local advocates united to defeat Encina’s proposal.
PollutionGarbage In, Toxics Out: They Promised “Advanced Recycling” for Plastics and Delivered Toxic Waste
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The American Chemistry Council promotes chemical recycling as a solution to plastic waste but this article highlights concerns raised by environmentalists about its efficacy and environmental impact, as well as the lobbying efforts to reclassify it as manufacturing in 24 states.
PollutionHumans Have Crossed 6 of 9 ‘Planetary Boundaries’
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This article discusses the latest update to the planetary boundaries model, highlighting the inclusion of numerical guideposts for each boundary and emphasizing the interconnected factors influencing Earth’s habitability beyond climate change.
HealthPaints: A Source of Volatile PFAS in Air─Potential Implications for Inhalation Exposure
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In this study several commercial paints were analyzed for volatile and nonvolatile per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), finding that paints could be potential sources of human exposure to PFAS, with one paint exceeding the reference dose for children and adults.