Plastics Through an Environmental Justice Lens

Plastics Through an Environmental Justice Lens

Graphic: Tyler Norman


“When it comes to plastics, we have to look at environmental justice communities and how plastics impact our communities. Most people go to a grocery store and get a single-use bag, you know, hopefully they reuse it, but ultimately it’s still plastic. And we got to look at the life cycle of that plastic, you know, fossil fuels are brought up out of the ground and then shipped into our communities, environmental justice communities, through either pipelines, rail and/or trucks. Then they’re refined in refineries and chemical plants and made into fuels and chemicals that go into plastics. Then those plastics—oh, then those fuels those those chemicals in those fuels are stored in our communities. Then, at some point, they go into injection moldings and other things like that make that plastic—still in our communities—and then, you know, exposing workers and the community all through that process.”

The above quote is by José Bravo during an interview with Phaedra Pezzullo, host of the Communicating Care podcast. Recorded on Sept. 24, 2021 and published on March 16, 2022, this episode titled, “Just Transition and Plastics” delves into the history of the Just Transition Alliance, the dangers of plastics to workers and communities of color, and what JTA is doing to mitigate further problems.