reports

The Environmental Integrity Project examined the permits and records of 70 U.S. facilities that make plastics or the main chemical ingredients in plastics and found they discharged almost 12 million pounds in 2023 of total nitrogen and phosphorus, which can cause fish-killing “dead zones.” All but one of these plants had no limits in their permits for discharging these nutrients into waterways. More than two thirds of this pollution was released by facilities in communities of color.