Top petrochemical company plastic producers must take action on plastics which damaging human health and polluting the environment

Minderoo Foundation has demanded action on plastics in a letter sent to the leaders of the world’s top 20 plastic companies, saying there is compelling scientific evidence that plastics have a devastating impact on human health and the environment.

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The letter, which cites compelling evidence gathered by leading global scientists about the human health harms and environmental damage caused by plastics and chemicals associated with its production, was sent after the latest round of global talks on a plastics treaty stalled and were adjourned.

The Fifth session of Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee on Plastic Pollution (INC-5) was held in Busan, Republic of Korea, from 25 November to 1 December 2024, but ended without agreement.

Dr Andrew Forrest AO said lobbyists sponsored by companies from the fossil fuel and chemical industry worked both openly and in stealth to stifle critical discussions leading to the talks collapsing without meaningful progress.

“As a businessman and philanthropist who has over many years devoted substantial personal resources to address the current plastics pollution crisis, this alarms me,” Dr Forrest wrote.

Dr Christos Symeonides, paediatrician and Research Principal in Minderoo Foundation’s Plastics and Human Health team said the growing body of scientific evidence that plastic is harmful to our health is irrefutable and demands urgent action.

“The scientific evidence is well established now, plastics and the chemicals they’re made from significantly harm our health throughout our lives. They impact birth outcomes, child neurodevelopment, reproductive health, and metabolic, endocrine and nutrition systems. The more science looks at the cocktail of plastic chemicals we are exposed to every day, the more negative impacts have been found.

“As a paediatrician, I'm alarmed that we, as a society, have been so quick to accelerate our use of plastics and so slow to predict, recognise, acknowledge and respond to the impact plastic chemicals are having on our very future, our children.

“Just as lead in petrol, fossil fuels and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) had a tipping point where it became clear they posed unacceptable health risks for the public without urgent action  –  plastic must be next,” he said.

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This letter, de-identified for privacy, was first published to certain companies on the Plastic Waste Makers Index list in December 2024.

Letter recipients:

The top 20 list of petrochemical companies producing virgin polymers bound for single-use plastic named in the Plastic Waste Makers Index 2023:

Plastic Waste Makers Index

Minderoo Foundation’s Plastic Waste Makers Index was first published in 2021, revealing the largest contributors to the global plastics crisis, finding that just 20 companies, supported by a small group of financial backers, were responsible for producing more than 50 per cent of single use plastic worldwide.

A second edition of the Plastic Waste Makers Index was published in 2023, which found that despite rising consumer awareness, there was more single use plastic being produced than ever before.

Both reports were prepared in conjunction with respected research and analysis partners, with the application of the research methodology independently reviewed.

Plastic Health Umbrella Review

Minderoo Foundation, in collaboration with JBI at the University of Adelaide, undertook an umbrella review, systematically examining vast amounts of research data from thousands of scientific studies on exposure to plastic chemicals and the impacts on human health.

The Plastic Health Umbrella Review specifically looked at some of the most commonly used plastic chemicals that we know humans are exposed to – BPA (bisphenol A), phthalates (plasticisers), PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) and PBDEs (Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers), both of which are flame retardants, and PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances).

The Umbrella Review found that there is consistent and irrefutable evidence that plastic chemicals in every class examined harm human health across the entire human life cycle.