Lisa Song

At a conference meant to address the plastic crisis, pro-plastic messaging was inescapable. Meanwhile, industry insiders — some positioned as government delegates — were given access to vital negotiations.

Companies whose futures depend on plastic production are trying to persuade the federal government to allow them to put the label “recyclable” on plastic shopping bags and other items virtually guaranteed to end up in landfills and incinerators.

The plastics industry uses a controversial accounting method to inflate the recycled content it advertises in products. A new EPA policy won’t allow it for any products it endorses as a “Safer Choice.”

From Coke to Clorox, ProPublica contacted all 51 companies on the Consumer Brands Association board of directors to ask if they agreed with the group’s proposed redefinition of “recyclable” plastic. Most did not respond. None said they disagreed.

The California attorney general’s lawsuit, which cites ProPublica reporting, alleges that products made with Exxon’s process contain only a small fraction of the recycled plastic that they claim to have.

Critics call it the plastics industry’s Project 2025. Tucked into a federal recycling bill is a litany of regulatory rollbacks and other industry-friendly provisions that federal agencies under Donald Trump could adopt without congressional approval.

The federal webpage for an observatory named for the late astronomer Vera Rubin was edited to omit any recognition of the fact that science remains a male-dominated field or that the observatory was working to be more inclusive.

In just two weeks, Donald Trump has made drastic changes to the Environmental Protection Agency. Here’s how they could impact efforts to reform toxic hot spots across the U.S. and who will be left to safeguard these communities.

Vaccines. Fluoride. Autism. Communications involving these and 20 other “controversial, high profile, or sensitive” topics will get extra scrutiny under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

A complaint filed under the Biden administration alleged that on more than 1,000 occasions in 2022 and 2023, the GEO Group had its employees use the disinfectant, which causes irreversible eye damage and skin burns, without proper protection.