NEW REPORTAdvancing Health and Equity Through Better Building Products
PollutionBuildings’ Hidden Plastic Problem: Policy Brief and Recommendations
Report
Habitable’s policy brief, “Buildings’ Hidden Plastic Problem,” reveals stunning statistics about current and projected plastic use in buildings and includes recommendations to reduce plastic pollution—greenhouse gases (GHGs), microplastics, and toxic chemicals—throughout product life cycles.
This policy brief presents highlights from the significant body of science indicating that plastic building materials are contributing to serious health and environmental harms over their life cycle, from fossil fuel extraction to production, use, and disposal. These impacts fall disproportionately on susceptible and marginalized people, including women, children, Indigenous people, low-income communities, and people of color. The brief includes examples of solutions and offers recommendations to strengthen policies that will reduce plastic use in the built environment and associated life cycle harms.
Endorsing organizations:
- Alaska Community Action on Toxics
- Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments
- Beyond Plastics
- CannonDesign
- Ecology Center
- Green Science Policy Institute
- Just Zero
- Little Things Matter
- MSR Design
- Planetary Health Alliance
- Toxic Free Future
- Science and Environmental Health Network
Interested in endorsing these policy recommendations? Contact us.
PollutionMaterials Economy Webinar
Resource
A path towards planetary health is more urgently needed now than ever, but our current materials economy creates rampant pollution, climate change, and growing inequity. Shifting from harmful practices to healthful solutions will require cross-sector partnerships, holistic thinking, and exciting new approaches that reduce the burden of industry on people and our planet.
Watch Habitable’s special Earth Month webinar featuring leading global voices, including:
- Dr. Bethanie Carney-Almroth
- Dr. Veena Singla
- Martha Lewis
Moderated by Gina Ciganik, CEO of Habitable
HealthHow Plastic Can Harm Your Health
News
Tests by Consumer Reports found bisphenols and phthalates, chemicals used in plastic, in a wide range of packaged foods, raising concerns due to their potential health effects, including disruptions to the endocrine system and associated health issues.
Climate ChangeProject Drawdown
Resource
Project Drawdown is a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing effective, science-based climate solutions, fostering bold new climate leadership, and promoting new narratives and voices to help the world stop climate change.
Climate ChangeHow Big Oil is using toxic chemicals as a lifeline – and how we can stop it
Resource
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.
Climate ChangeMultisolving for Climate, Chemicals & Health
Resource
This podcast conversation explores the intersection of climate change and chemical pollution.
Highlighting opportunities to address both crises simultaneously while improving public health, equity, and economic vitality, featuring experts Dr. Elizabeth Sawin and Beverley Thorpe.
EquityLifetime Cost of Plastic 10 Times Higher for Low-Income Countries Than Rich Ones
Report
A new report reveals that low-income countries, despite using less plastic, face lifetime plastic costs that are ten times higher than those of wealthier nations.
This disparity highlights the structural inequities within the plastics value chain, where the burdens of plastic pollution fall disproportionately on those least equipped to address them, exacerbating the crisis. WWF urges all governments to adopt a treaty with harmonized, binding global rules to eliminate these inequities in our current take, make, and waste plastics system. Such a treaty is essential to ensure a fair and effective global response to plastic pollution.
PollutionGarbage In, Toxics Out: They Promised “Advanced Recycling” for Plastics and Delivered Toxic Waste
News
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.
PollutionThe world is awash in plastic. Oil producers want a say in how it’s cleaned up
News
This article provides an overview of the global plastic waste crisis, highlighting the environmental impact of plastic pollution and the ongoing efforts by the UN to create a legally binding international agreement to address the issue.