I am writing as your constituent to demand immediate, aggressive federal action to slash plastic use and production—starting with food contact materials and single-use packaging. This is not just a litter problem. Plastics are a direct extension of fossil fuel extraction and now a full-blown health and climate emergency.
Microplastics and plastic-related chemicals are being found all through the human body: in the brain, heart, stomach, lymph nodes, placenta, breast milk, semen, and even meconium—the first stool of newborns. Researchers describe us as being “born pre-polluted.” Recent studies have detected microplastics in every single human testicle sample tested, raising grave concerns about fertility and endocrine disruption.
Plastics and additives like phthalates and PFAS (“forever chemicals”) routinely leach from packaging into our food and beverages, especially when heated or in contact with fats. Multiple investigations have found dozens of PFAS compounds in food packaging worldwide, including many that are not even authorized for use. These chemicals are linked to cancers, immune dysfunction, reduced IQ, birth defects, and infertility, yet the FDA is still fighting lawsuits instead of removing them from the food supply.
At the same time, plastics are helping push the climate past livable limits. Roughly 99% of plastics are made from oil, gas, and coal, and the U.S. plastics industry already emits at least 232 million tons of CO₂-equivalent per year—on par with more than 100 coal plants. As former EPA regional administrator Judith Enck warns, we are “turning our ocean into a watery landfill,” where plastic breaks into microplastics that are eaten by fish and marine life, driving an ocean emergency. This is an immediate threat to ocean ecosystems, food security, and human survival.
The industry’s favorite distraction—“recycling”—is a proven failure. Beyond Plastics’ own analysis shows the U.S. plastic recycling rate is stuck at about 5–6%, with the rest landfilled, burned, or littered. Their research also documents why high recycling rates for plastic are physically and economically unrealistic: thousands of incompatible resins and additives make true circularity a fantasy, not a solution.
In other words: plastic pollution is contaminating our food, water, and air at an unprecedented rate, threatening human health from the womb onward, accelerating climate breakdown, and devastating ocean life—while “recycling” barely scratches the surface.
I am asking you to treat this like the emergency it is and to:
1. Drastically cut virgin plastic production, starting with single-use and food-contact plastics, in line with a strong Global Plastics Treaty.
2. Ban toxic additives (PFAS, phthalates, and similar chemicals) from all food contact materials and children’s products, based on hazard, not industry lobbying.
3. Reject petrochemical build-out (new ethane crackers, plastic production hubs) that lock in decades more fossil fuel extraction and plastic waste.
4. Pass strong reuse and refill laws and extended producer responsibility, making corporations—not communities—responsible for upstream reduction and safe alternatives.
5. Fund independent health and environmental justice research and monitoring in frontline communities living next to refineries, crackers, and incinerators.
We are out of time for half-measures and green-washed “solutions” that keep fossil fuel and chemical companies happy while everyone else pays with their bodies and their future. I expect you to publicly acknowledge this crisis, champion strong legislation to turn off the plastic tap, and oppose any bill that expands fossil-fuel-based plastics.
I will be watching your votes, your co-sponsorships, and your public statements on this closely.
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