Experts Stress Reducing Plastics in Homes as Los Angeles Rebuilds from Wildfires

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 7, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- On the anniversary of the January 2025 devastating wildfires in Los Angeles, California, experts at Plastic Pollution Coalition and Habitable stress the need to reduce plastics in homes and other buildings to reduce future health and wildfire risks.

Their report, "How Plastics Fuel Wildfires & How to Rebuild Better," explores the links between plastics and wildfires, and shows how communities impacted by wildfires can build and rebuild better with safer, plastic-free materials. Plastic building materials burn hotter, faster, and more toxic than natural materials. And while the immediate threats of wildfire may diminish once fires are extinguished, long-term environmental threats can persist for years following a disaster. Plastics greatly exacerbate these risks.

"Building homes and neighborhoods from flammable and toxic plastic is a giant risk to our health, safety, and futures. Last year, my family nearly lost our home in the wildfires that swept across LA. I saw first hand how countless neighborhoods, schools, and lives were upended in this unnecessary chain reaction. While there were of course other factors at play, I believe choosing plastic-free building materials and passing legislation to make these materials more affordable and accessible can help prevent heartbreaking loss like this from happening in the future." — Grace Potter, Musician

"As LA rebuilds from last year's fires, we must build resilience—that means using less plastic and more natural and nontoxic building materials." — Dianna Cohen, Co-Founder & CEO, Plastic Pollution Coalition

Cohen and Potter, who both live in California, recently teamed up to write about the serious impacts of the 2025 disaster, its connections, and Los Angeles' opportunity to build back better—with safer natural materials instead of harmful plastics.

Habitable CEO Gina Ciganik's November 2025 TEDx Talk, "The Plastic Problem Hidden in Plain Sight" further describes the harms from plastic building materials and related chemicals, including links to cancer, reproductive harm, and developmental issues, and proposes solutions. Ciganik's talk was part of TEDxGreatPacificGarbagePatch, focused on solutions to plastic pollution.

The building and construction industry is the second-biggest driver of plastic production and pollution, after the packaging industry. Better decisionmaking tools for builders and policies encouraging safer, plastic-free building materials use can help usher in necessary change that better protects communities from plastics' dangers. The report and TEDx Talk present readily available healthier and more sustainable alternatives to plastic building materials, often with comparable cost and performance. They spotlight Habitable's Informed^™, a free, publicly available product guidance grounded in science-based research, using a red-to-green ranking that allows building industry practitioners to easily avoid worst-in-class products (red), and prefer those that tend to be no or low-plastic (yellow or green).

Press contact:
Erica Cirino
Communications Manager
Plastic Pollution Coalition
[email protected] 

SOURCE Plastic Pollution Coalition