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The American Chemistry Council (ACC) issued the following statement in response to a report on the petrochemicals industry released today by the Minderoo Foundation. It is reprinted below.

Every day plastics help protect people and keep us healthy in countless ways. Plastics make modern medicine possible. Syringes, IV bags, N95 masks, and almost all sterile medical instruments rely on plastics. Outside of hospitals, plastics help prevent everyday exposures to pathogens, through products such as food packaging that separate raw meat from fresh produce and bags to pick up pet waste.

It’s important that we better understand the risks of a world without plastics and move beyond the rhetoric. Plastics are essential to a lower carbon future, enabling solar and wind energy, insulating homes, preventing food waste, and lightweighting vehicles. Plastics are essential to innovation, from space exploration to cutting-edge medical advances. Without plastics, our future would look much like the past.

The Minderoo Foundation’s report was designed to generate headlines; we disagree with its characterizations and claims about our industry.

America’s plastic makers remain laser-focused on creating a circular economy in which these essential materials are captured and remade, over and over, so that society can retain the myriad benefits that make modern life possible.