By Tom Gantert | The Center Square
(The Center Square) – Fourteen state attorneys general asked the Biden Administration to do more to “combat the plastic pollution crisis.”

Jeremy DeBenedictis, President of Alterra Energy, stands in the storage area of shredded plastics his company receives from recycling facilities in their facility in Akron, Ohio, on Thursday, Sept. 8, 2022. “Our mission is to solve plastic pollution,” said DeBenedictis, company president. “That is not just a tagline. We all truly want to solve plastic pollution.” (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)
In an Aug. 3 media release, the group stated, “Plastic does not fully degrade, instead breaking down into smaller pieces called microplastics, which have been found in drinking water, food, air, and even human blood and living lung tissue.”
Michigan AG Dana Nessel’s office said plastic manufacturing’s pollution also disproportionately affected low-income communities and communities of color, and addressing it was part of the “environmental justice” movement.
The letter sent to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency wants a stronger plan to dramatically reduce the production of plastic materials. The states included in the letter were California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Vermont, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C.
“All Michigan communities deserve to be safe from the harmful effects of plastics pollution,” Nessel said in a media release. “Our defense of Michigan’s natural resources includes protecting them from the chemicals produced by the manufacture and disposal of plastics. I stand firmly with my colleagues in asking the Biden administration for a robust plan that responds to the plastics pollution crisis and reduces our nation’s global plastics footprint in meaningful ways.”
Pennsylvania AG Michelle Henry said the AGs are “demanding that the EPA implement standards to cut down on plastics contaminating our natural resources.”
“My office’s ongoing actions in environmental causes are consistent with our fight to ensure Pennsylvanians’ basic rights to drink clean water and breathe clean air,” Henry said in a media release. “Time and time again, we have taken positions to regulate industry pollution that jeopardizes the health of future generations.”
The Center Square was launched in May 2019 to fulfill the need for high-quality statehouse and statewide news across the United States.
The focus of our work is state- and local-level government and economic reporting. A taxpayer sensibility distinguishes our work from other coverage of state and local issues. As a result of this approach, our readers are better informed about the focus of state and local government and its cost to the citizens whose tax dollars fund governmental decisions.
The Center Square is staffed by editors and reporters with extensive professional journalism experience. We engage readers with essential news, data and analysis – delivered with velocity, frequency and consistency.
Its obvious all of Pennsylvania has felt the impacts from the state’s systemic failure to protect public health from the toxic byproducts involved with manufacturing, recycling and disposal of plastics. Against the objective economic and environmental interests of all Pennsylvanians, as the fracking industry financially collapsed in the background of a raging Pandemic, the state of Pennsylvania acted to guarantee $2 billion to Shell Oil to construct a new pyrolic cracker. Now in operation, this and a connecting pipeline got underbuilt to design specs in order to save costs; the pipeline failed and the cracker has failed to operate without… Read more »
Everyone should google EWG.org and type in our zipcode and really see what is in the Gettysburg water supply! Five quarters of violations and a lot of chemicals that surpass healthy guidelines set by EPA. PA truly has seriously unhealthy water and it isn’t just from plastics or “forever chemicals”.