Green News
In April, the Green Sanctuary Committee hosted an Earth Month Event centered on plastics. The speaker was Jacqueline Casazza for the organization Beyond Plastics. Her presentation highlighted the connections between the fossil fuel industry, specifically fracking and one of its by-products, ethane. Chemists discovered that ethane could be turned into ethylene, which is the base material for most plastics. The fracking boom of the 1990’s led to a boom in plastic production and, a corresponding boom in plastic pollution. Plastics manufacturers have managed to convince us that they produce an essential material, and plastic is everywhere. Plastic trash is also everywhere.
The other success of the plastics industry has been to make plastic pollution a consumer problem by promoting recycling, knowing it was a sham. Never mind the messy details, such as that only six percent of plastic even makes it to a recycling center and that making it to a recycling center doesn’t guarantee recycling. That triangle with a number on the bottom of that plastic container? That’s just an indication of the kind of plastic resin used to make the container, not whether it can be recycled. In fact, only hard plastics, specifically numbers 1 and 2, can be recycled. Even then, the plastic can only be recycled once or twice, and the product is of lower quality and needs to be supplemented with virgin plastic. Many products, such as straws, eating ware, lids, chip bags, candy wrappers, pens, sunglasses, and freezer food bags, are not accepted by recycling centers. Many containers that look like paper are lined with plastic: cups, take-out or left-over containers, and cannot be recycled.
What happens to the rest? Unlike natural materials such as wool, cotton, silk, wood, metal, and paper, plastic can never be absorbed into the environment. A piece of plastic simply degrades into smaller and smaller pieces, into micro and nanoplastics that infiltrate plant and animal life. Plastics have been found throughout our bodies with no current clues as to the long-term health effects. In 2025, The Lancet published a review and came to the conclusion that plastic pollution was a grave threat to health.
One of the newest schemes, err … proposals by the plastics industry is to promote chemical recycling, also called pyrolysis. This process is supposed to “enable a circular economy for plastics”. As you might expect, the hype far exceeds the reality. This method is just as uneconomical as mechanical recycling and very little of the recycled plastic material goes to make plastic products; most is used for fuel. So much for the “circular economy”.
There has been pushback. Several lawsuits were filed in 2025 against companies for deceptive advertising about recycling by Baltimore; California; Connecticut; LA County; and New York State. Minnesota settled a lawsuit against Walmart and the manufacturer of Hefty trash bags in 2024. In addition, Pennsylvania recently settled a lawsuit to prevent pollution by plastic pellets (the raw material for plastic production) in a watershed of the Ohio River.
In addition, as of January, twelve states now have bans on single-use plastic bags: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii (though the state doesn’t have a single law; county-level ordinances cover the entire state), Maine, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington. Several U.S. territories, including American Samoa, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands, have also implemented bans.
Another development in the growing opposition to plastic is the adoption of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) laws for packaging. Seven states have enacted EPR legislation: Maine, in 2021, was the first, followed by Oregon in 2021, Colorado and California in 2022, Minnesota in 2024, and Maryland and Washington in 2025. These laws shift who pays for packaging waste management—from municipalities and taxpayers to the producers who create the packaging.
Here in Illinois, there are three bills in the State Assembly that address the problem of too much plastic in the environment. HB 1600 Single-Use Plastic Foodware Reduction Act would reduce unnecessary plastic waste by ensuring single-use items, such as utensils, straws, and condiment packets are provided only upon request. HB 4418 addresses plastic pollution at its source by preventing plastic pellets and other pre-production materials from entering our waterways. SB 1531 would phase out the use of foam (Styrofoam) foodware in Illinois.
You can help by encouraging your State Senator and Representative to support these bills. Go to ilga.com to find your State Senator and State Representative. Go to the appropriate website to send a message in support of these bills. Support the introduction of EPR laws in Illinois and of single-use plastic bag bans. The only way to make progress on plastic pollution is to convince your elected officials that this is an important issue to you and will influence your vote in the next election.
~ Leslie Peet