Demand Progress

Did you know the United States generates enough plastic waste to fill a football stadium 1.5 times every single day? And that amount is increasing. That’s because only 8% of this plastic, specifically single-use plastic like foam cups and plastic bags, is recycled, leaving the rest to be landfilled, incinerated, or littered.¹

Big Oil companies are behind the push to continue using deadly, dirty plastics, even when there are safer, cleaner alternatives. In fact, plastics production is on track to emit more fossil fuels contributing to climate change than coal power plants by 2030.² Corporate greed is driving fossil fuel executives to increase profits no matter what the impacts are to public health and the environment. It’s past time for Congress to act.

Sign the petition: Tell Congress to ban single use plastics to protect our environment and public health.

Single-use plastics have a huge, and devastating, impact on marine life affecting at least 267 species around the world, including 86% of types of sea turtles, 43% of all marine mammals like whales and sea otters, and 44% of all seabird species.³ The plastic debris injuries and kills these animals from accidental ingestion, entanglement, suffocation and more.

And it’s not only a concern for wild animals — single use plastics also have substantial public health effects. According to the World Wildlife Fund, you likely consume 2,000 microplastic particles adding up to 5 grams, about the size of a credit card, of microplastics every single week.⁴

While there is uncertainty around the effects, there is serious potential for that exposure to cause significant harm. Chemicals in plastics for example, specifically phthalates, have been shown to harm children’s brain development that can cause learning and behavioral disorders.⁵

Until Congress stands up to fossil fuel producing plastics manufacturers and Big Oil companies benefiting from the dangerous use of plastics, we’re all at risk.

Sign the petition: Tell Congress to ban single use plastics to protect our environment and public health.

Sources:

1. Public Interest Network, "Banning Single-Use Plastics,” February 2020.
2. Ibid.
3. Clean Water Action, "The Problem of Marine Plastic Pollution," 2024.
4. CNN, "You could be swallowing a credit card’s weight in plastic every week,” June 17, 2019.
5. CNN, "Chemicals in plastics damage babies’ brains and must be banned immediately, expert group says,” February 20, 2021.