By Amanda Rowoldt
In February 2025, I witnessed something I can’t forget.
A massive plume of thick black smoke was pouring out of a plastic waste burning facility in Licking County, about 40 minutes east of Columbus, Ohio. The smoke was so dense it could be seen from miles away.
As I sat in my car near the facility, I began to feel sick. Nausea set in first, followed by dizziness and a sharp, burning headache. The symptoms came on quickly, and before long, I realized I needed to leave.
But as I drove away, another feeling stayed with me: guilt.
I could leave. I could roll up my windows, go home, and distance myself from whatever was in the air that day. The people who live near that facility don’t have that option. Residents in nearby communities like Hebron, Union Township, and Licking Township breathe that air every day.
The next day, I met with a local Ohio state representative. I shared the video footage I had recorded and described what I had seen. The response was immediate: “That doesn’t look right.”
Soon after, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency conducted a site inspection. The agency determined that the facility had violated its air permit by emitting excessive levels of particulate pollution, which can wreak havoc on health. Since then, the plant has continued to receive notices of violation for the same issue.
The company that owns and operates the facility is engaged in something called “advanced recycling.” But this process is neither new nor advanced, and it isn’t recycling. It involves incinerating plastic waste, a practice long regulated as solid waste incineration under the Clean Air Act to help protect health and limit emissions of particulate matter, heavy metals, and other toxic pollutants. For nearby communities, the air pollution doesn’t just disappear. It breaks down into smaller and smaller particles, eventually becoming part of the air people breathe, the dust that settles in their homes, and the environment around them.
And increasingly, it becomes part of us.
About three miles downwind from the facility are several local schools: an elementary school, a middle school, and a high school. The elementary school is designated as a Purple Star school, serving military families.
These children are not just exposed to polluted air; they are growing up in a world where microplastics are becoming unavoidable.
Nearly everyone now has microplastics in their body.
Researchers have detected these plastic fragments in the brain, breast milk, the placenta, baby poop, testicles, semen, blood, hearts, lungs, livers, kidneys, urine, and saliva. These particles don’t just pass through us. They accumulate.
Microplastics often carry harmful chemicals such as phthalates, PFAS, and heavy metals. Substances linked to cancer, hormone disruption, reproductive harm, and neurological effects. Some scientists now believe these particles can act like slow-release delivery systems, continuously leaching toxic chemicals into the body over time.
This is the invisible side of plastic pollution.
It’s not just what we can see, like dirty air pollution rising from a facility. It’s what we can’t see: the microscopic particles that travel through air, water, and our bodies, quietly building up over time.
As a mother, this reality is deeply unsettling.
We are not just talking about pollution “out there.” We are talking about pollution that is already inside our children and inside us.
And experiences like this make something else clear: air pollution, plastic waste, and climate change are not separate crises. They are deeply connected to our health.
That’s why we need our leaders to act.
We need stronger state and federal protections that prioritize the health of our families, especially our children. And families need protections from plastic incineration air pollution. Because what is happening in Licking County doesn’t stay in Licking County. It travels through the air. It settles in our communities. And increasingly, it ends up in our bodies.
Ohio families deserve clean air.
And our children deserve a healthier future.
Amanda Rowoldt is the Ohio Field Organizer for Moms Clean Air Force. She is a public policy expert who specializes in building common ground among diverse stakeholders to advance difficult, yet critical, issues.