How Plastic Bottle Production Impacts Air Quality

This week is Air Quality Awareness Week. In alignment, we are highlighting the impact of plastic bottle production on air quality.

In 2019, The World Health Organization found that 99% of the world’s population lived where the WHO air quality guidelines were unmet. They also estimated that 4.2 million premature deaths were caused by outdoor air pollution. 

According to Vital Strategies, greenhouse gases and other pollutants are released during the production of plastic, worsening air quality and driving climate change and other environmental concerns. Emissions from plastic bottle pollution can have severe health impacts, such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, and infertility in people who can have children. Fenceline communities, which are often low-income communities and communities of color, suffer from the impacts of poor air quality due to plastic pollution much more heavily than their counterparts.

In Defend Our Health’s enlightening report titled Hidden Hazards: The Chemical Footprint of a Plastic Bottle, we found that 64% of residents who face serious cancer risks from ethylene oxide ommissions (a toxic chemical used in the production of plastic) are people of color. Many of these communities are located along the Gulf Coast, infamously dubbed “Cancer Alley.” Fenceline communities continue to bear the weight of toxic air pollution, with the tax being their health. 

In our report, we also found that In North America, PET plastic is linked to 8.8 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually, and the manufacturing process across the supply chain releases 200 million pounds of toxic chemicals into the air and water every year. PET plastics are made from non-renewable fossil fuel resources, and their extraction in the U.S. through fracking is also linked to air and water pollution.

Communities across the nation deserve a right to breathe clean air. Regardless of their zip code, children deserve a future free of toxic chemicals in the air, water, and soil.

Want to get involved in Air Quality Awareness Week? Please take action today to help decrease plastic production emissions by signing our petition to hold The Coca-Cola Company, which buys and sells more than 125 billion plastic bottles annually, accountable for its role in plastic pollution and air pollution. We urge them to take immediate action by requiring suppliers to replace antimony and cobalt in plastic bottles with safer alternatives and achieve zero discharge of cancer-causing chemicals to the air and water along its supply chain.