A worker collects used plastic bottles at a waste facility ahead of World Environment Day in Karachi, Pakistan, on June 4. Photo by Shahzahb Akber/EPA
June 25 (UPI) -- As global concern over plastic pollution intensifies, a growing share of the problem is tied not to where waste is discarded, but where it begins -- with the United States emerging as a major exporter of the raw materials that fuel plastic production in China and beyond.
At the center of that shift is Texas, now a premier hub for petrochemical exports, shipping billions of dollars' worth of ethane and plastic resins across the Pacific each year. In 2025 alone, U.S. plastics exports to China exceeded $23 billion, underscoring the scale of a trade that is increasingly drawing scrutiny from environmental analysts and policymakers.
The dynamic highlights a widening disconnect in global supply chains. While the United States produces and exports the building blocks of plastic, much of the environmental burden associated with its use -- and disposal -- is borne elsewhere.
Trans-Pacific plastics pipeline
