Conservative fifth circuit overturns EPA’s ban prohibiting Inhance from using manufacturing process creating toxic compound

Conservative fifth circuit overturns EPA’s ban prohibiting Inhance from using manufacturing process creating toxic compound

A federal appeals court in the US has killed a ban on plastic containers contaminated with highly toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” found to leach at alarming levels into food, cosmetics, household cleaners, pesticides and other products across the economy.

Houston-based Inhance manufactures an estimated 200m containers annually with a process that creates, among other chemicals, PFOA, a toxic PFAS compound. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in December prohibited Inhance from using the manufacturing process.

But the conservative fifth circuit court of appeals court overturned the ban. The judges did not deny the containers’ health risks, but said the EPA could not regulate the buckets under the statute it used.

The rule requires companies to alert the EPA if a new industrial process creates hazardous chemicals. Inhance has produced the containers for decades and argued that its process is not new, so it is not subject to the regulations. The EPA argued that it only became aware that Inhance’s process created PFOA in 2020, so it could be regulated as a new use, but the court disagreed.

  • assassin_aragorn
    42·
    7 months ago

    Making paper is a pretty nasty process and wasteful as well. Cardboard also runs the risk of being heavier to transport than plastics, when it comes to single use anyway – and that means more energy and emissions to transport them.

    • WarmSoda
      60·
      7 months ago7 months ago

      It is biodegradable and comes from a natural resource that can be sustainable though. Plastic is just… There. Grocery stores have switched back to paper bags awhile ago instead of plastic, so it’s able to be done.

      It’s a crap situation.

      • RainfallSonata
        32·
        7 months ago7 months ago

        Grocery stores have switched back to paper bags awhile ago instead of plastic, so it’s able to be done.

        Where? God, I wish. I ask for one and the cashier’s roll their eyes.

        • WarmSoda
          11·
          7 months ago

          Everyone I know in the US has been using reusable bags for like ten years now.

            • WarmSoda
              11·
              7 months ago

              And what? You said people roll their eyes. That hasn’t been a problem in ten years.

              • RainfallSonata
                12·
                7 months ago

                And reusable bags are irrelevant in a conversation about stores switching back to paper bags. Where is this happening? You don’t know either.