When Habitable published “Buildings’ Hidden Plastic Problem” in November 2024, no one knew how important this policy brief would soon be to entire communities in and around Los Angeles faced with the destruction of their homes in devastating wildfires.
The intention of the brief was to shed light on current and projected use of plastic as a building material. The nonprofit research organization filled their report with recommendations for policymakers who set goals and strategies to reduce plastic pollution globally, including greenhouse gases, microplastics, and toxic chemicals in buildings.
Tell Congress: Burning Plastic Is Not a Solution to the Plastics Crisis
“We got it out before the global plastic treaty negotiation, but it was also intentionally developed for a broader audience. The strategies listed in the brief can apply at the federal level, the state level, or even at the city or county level,” says Teresa McGrath, Habitable’s chief research officer.
Another goal of the brief was to build awareness that building materials are even made of plastic. “People do not understand that paint is plastic, that carpet is plastic, that window coverings are plastic. They really don’t understand that plastic is being used at a similar scale to single-use plastics in the built environment,” says McGrath.
Researchers can frequently be hindered by a lack of visuals to support their work. It’s tricky to build awareness about pipes hidden in walls. Then came the California wildfires. And suddenly everyone from local to national news to cancer organizations is weighing in on building materials and what happens when they burn. This wide-scale effort to make the public aware that wildfire ashes and smoke contain toxic particles released from burning building materials like asbestos from insulation, lead from paint, and flame retardants from foam including in furniture also included information about plastic chemicals. Some news sources explained to people returning to sift through the remains of their homes that when smoke seems to have cleared, checking the air quality index (AQI) isn’t sufficient to determine safety. AQI does not monitor these toxic chemicals, and residents need to stay away for longer or take serious and extended precautions to protect their lungs—and their health—from these unmonitored particles.
“A lot of these plastics when they burn release even more hazardous materials. PVC is the most commonly used plastic in buildings’ pipes, siding, and your flooring. When PVC burns, it does release dioxins,” says McGrath who has yet to see any information about dioxin monitoring in the aftermath of the California wildfires.
Why are buildings filled with plastic?
McGrath says there’s so much plastic, especially in newer buildings, because people have grown to think of them as an “acceptable place” for plastics to live. There is also widespread belief that plastic is durable. “That is not our finding. These plastic building materials don’t last long and get turned over very quickly, and there are no good end-of-life stories for these materials,” she says. For example, carpet is switched out every three to five years. “Carpet is essentially being tossed out at the same rate as all plastic bottles, bags, and straws. And it’s showing up as plastic pollution.”
Most people, McGrath contends, just don’t know that microplastics from paint are the largest source of microplastics in the ocean, she notes. This comes from exterior and interior paints and coatings, as well as from boats, bridges, and roads. A main source of macro plastic is foam from insulation washing up on beaches or in oceans. “You can tell based on flame retardants if it’s insulation,” she notes. These leak from buildings in a number of ways, including when lightweight foam is cut for installation as well as from demolition. As public awareness of the concerns regarding plastic in building grows, Habitable is hopeful stakeholders like policymakers will take broad steps to minimize its use.
How to reduce plastic in buildings
Habitable’s brief pulls from a significant and growing body of science indicating that using plastic as a building material is contributing to serious health and environmental harms over its life cycle, from fossil fuel extraction to production, use, and disposal. The organization notes that these impacts fall disproportionately on susceptible and marginalized people, including women, children, Indigenous people, historically disinvested communities, and people of color.
The brief includes examples of solutions and offers recommendations to strengthen policies that will reduce the use of plastic as a building material and associated life cycle harms. Some of their intended audiences include health care, schools, and affordable housing. If you’re not a policymaker and you just want a safer home, there are commonsense steps individuals can take too. This includes people wanting to start over in the wake of horrific wildfires. “As they think about rebuilding, I hope they think about rebuilding with materials that are nonplastic and that are typically safer,” she says.
Plastic materials are worst in class across every single lifestyle stage from extraction to end of life, they’re made from fossil fuels, manufactured with petrochemical additives, and wind up landfilled or burned. Older buildings tend to contain less plastic, so there are tried-and-true examples of durable alternatives that work.
Here are some safer building guidelines:
- Avoid plastic: This includes for all materials, including carpet.
- Seek recyclable options: For pipes, materials like copper are “infinitely recyclable.”
- Less is more: Reduce the overall volume of materials used and thrown away.
- Seek durability: The best materials last a long time, this goes for exteriors and siding; plastic-clad buildings burn more quickly than fiber cement, brick, stucco, and even engineered wood.
- Embrace timeless aesthetics: Trendy renovations may result in next owner coming in, tearing it out, and starting over.
- Go natural: Use plant-based, well harvested, and renewable materials whenever possible.
McGrath says over 40% of materials globally go into making buildings. Keep this in mind when building, rebuilding, renovating, or making policy. “There’s a big opportunity here to do a lot of harm or alternatively do a lot of good.”
Tell Congress: Burning Plastic Is Not a Solution to the Plastics Crisis