Plastics, plastics, plastics. The theme of this year’s top Moms resources could not be clearer. In 2024, you relied on Moms for practical, everyday guidance on how the plastics industry is misleading us with false narratives, damaging our climate with its reliance on fossil fuels, and harming our health with massive amounts of pollution.
Tell Congress: Hold the Line on Progress to Cut Air and Climate Pollution
Education is a cornerstone of Moms’ mission, and resources are our primary tool for sharing crucial information with communities, lawmakers, and the press. These are the resources—fact sheets, essentially—you turned to again and again in 2024:
1. La contaminación por productos petroquímicos y nuestra salud
En Moms Clean Air Force, publicamos todos nuestros recursos tanto en inglés como en español, por una buena razón. Nuestras organizadoras de EcoMadres confían en ellos para su difusión en las comunidades latinas, y también son increíblemente populares entre el público en general.
Esta versión en español de Los plásticos y nuestra salud recibió más del doble de clics que el siguiente recurso más popular en nuestro sitio web en 2024. Vimos un interés similar en nuestras versiones en español de Los impactos en la salud de los huracanes y La contaminación de los tubos de escape y nuestra salud. Esto demuestra lo importante que es hacer que la información sobre los impactos en la salud de la contaminación y el cambio climático sea accesible para un público amplio.
At Moms, we publish all our resources in both English and Spanish—for good reason. Our EcoMadres organizers rely on them for their outreach in Latino communities and they’re incredibly popular with a general audience too.
This Spanish-language version of Plastics and Our Health got more than double the clicks of the next most popular resource on our website in 2024. We saw similar interest in our Spanish-language versions of Health Impacts of Hurricanes and Tailpipe Pollution and Our Health. It goes to show how important it is to make information about the health impacts of pollution and climate change accessible to a wide audience.
2. The Problem With Plastics Recycling
A groundbreaking report on the failure of plastics recycling by the Center for Climate Integrity, a fossil fuel accountability advocacy group, caught our eye early this year and prompted an all-hands-on-deck effort to spread the word. The plastics industry has been lying to us about the efficacy of recycling for decades? For shame!
We published our fact sheet about The Problem With Plastics Recycling this spring, and it immediately took off. It’s worth a read if you want to know more about what we’re up against. We need systemic, structural changes to address the plastics crisis, including reducing plastics production and cutting toxic air pollution at every point in the plastics supply chain.
3. “Chemical Recycling” 101
A perennial favorite, “Chemical Recycling” 101 moved up two slots in our top resource list this year. “Chemical” or “advanced” recycling is not actually recycling. This is an intentionally misleading term dreamed up by the plastics industry for burning plastic trash, creating harmful air pollution, contaminated oil, and toxic ash in the process. Moms are outraged by this practice, and it shows in your clicks on this resource—and your signatures on our fall petition to Congress urging them to reject a new bill that would exempt “chemical recycling” from air pollution laws.
4. Indigenous People and Air Pollution in the United States
We released our Indigenous People and Air Pollution in the United States resource in 2021 in partnership with the National Tribal Air Association, and it holds up. There are between 2.5 and 6 million Indigenous people in the United States. Generations of systemic abuses of Indigenous people have led, in many places, to chronic poverty, poor health care, substandard housing, and inadequate protection from sources of pollution—meaning air pollution is a major threat in Tribal communities. Indigenous adults and children have higher rates of many diseases linked to air pollution exposure, including asthma, diabetes, heart disease, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD).
Our resource lays plain the problem and offers up solutions, like supporting Tribal governments as they advance air quality management policies and programs, consistent with the needs, interests, and unique legal status of American Indian Tribes and Alaska Natives.
5. Ethane Cracker Plants
All that new plastic has to come from somewhere. In Ethane Cracker Plants, we explain the industrial facilities that create the building blocks for plastics manufacturing. Ethane cracker plants take chemicals derived from fossil fuels like oil and gas and turn them into tiny plastic pellets that then get shipped around the world. These facilities use mind-boggling amounts of energy and release a dizzying array of health-harming air pollutants—from volatile organic compounds to benzene, formaldehyde, and toluene.
Education is important, but reading about a renegade plastics industry and environmental injustice can also be overwhelming. One way to find calm when eco-anxiety strikes is by taking action. Join Moms to help us rein in industry, cut pollution, and protect children’s health on a large scale.
Tell Congress: Hold the Line on Progress to Cut Air and Climate Pollution