The Impact of Plastic Homes on Wildfires and Community Health
Lindsay Teeven
As communities rebuild after devastating wildfires, advocates are pushing for more than simply replacing the homes and buildings that were lost. Environmental advocates like The Plastic Pollution Coalition and Habitable are calling for communities to reconsider the use of plastic building materials and rebuild with safer alternatives. Their report, How Plastics Fuel Wildfires & How to Rebuild Better, focuses on the January 2025 Los Angeles wildfires and was created to inform policymakers about how communities affected by wildfires can rebuild with plastic-free materials.
Plastic Use in Construction
Plastic is deeply embedded in modern construction. Building and construction accounts for 17% of global plastic production and uses 70% of all PVC and 30% of all polystyrene produced globally. Plastic building products include materials used in flooring, siding, insulation, pipes, and paint. Without intervention to halt the usage, plastic in construction is projected to nearly double by the year 2050. The scale of plastic use is especially relevant in communities where wildfires can be common because plastic-based materials can become part of the fire itself. The Plastic Pollution Coalition and Habitable report that buildings made with plastics are more flammable than those made with traditional materials such as metal, stone, and wood. They also report that when wildfires move through densely built areas, plastics can be open-burned and release toxic chemicals like dioxins and phthalates, and hazardous microplastics.
Health Risks of Burning Plastic
The health concerns surrounding wildfire smoke make the materials burned during a fire important. The Environmental Protection Agency conducted a study and found that burning plastic or plastic waste produced the greatest effects on lung toxicity and mutagenicity among the manufactured materials tested. The EPA notes that although the study focused on burn pits, the findings can also be relevant to wildfires because the same types of materials are present when homes and other structures burn.
The potential impacts are found in our water too. Research published in Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology examined the thermal breakdown of plastic water pipes made from materials including PVC, CPVC, HDPE, PEX, and polypropylene. Researchers found that thermally exposed plastic pipes could generate BTEX compounds like benzene, which could leach from plastic into water. In their study, they found that 10 of 11 thermally degraded plastic pipes leached at least one BTEX compound. These findings explain why advocates are asking policymakers to look into new approaches to wildfire resilience. California already has requirements designed to reduce the likelihood of buildings catching on fire during wildfires. California’s Wildland Urban Interface Code provides standards intended to increase a building's resistance to flames and embers, and the Office of the State Fire Marshal maintains a list of products that meet the state's WUI requirements.
Healthier Alternatives Are Available
The Plastic Pollution Coalition and Habitable asks policymakers to consider the materials themselves and their potential health and environmental consequences. The Plastic Pollution Coalition is specifically urging California's Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency to support healthier, plastic-free building materials and create more resilient and safer neighborhoods. Habitable's recommendations focus on changing how the building industry approaches material selection. The organization calls on policymakers to phase out the most hazardous plastics, specifically PVC and polystyrene, while encouraging the move toward healthier alternatives.
Healthier alternatives are available for some plastic building materials, according to Habitable. Its report identifies no-plastic and low-plastic alternatives and gives examples of organizations that have incorporated them into buildings. For example, mineral wool could be used instead of the classic pink plastic insulation. Other alternatives identified by Habitable are wood fiber, cellulose, hemp, ceramic, tile, brick, stucco, copper, iron and many others that are not mentioned. The goal of this approach is to identify where plastic can be avoided and where other materials can perform the same function. Some organizations are already using these alternatives in projects. Habitable reports that MSR Design has used mineral wool boards instead of plastic insulation. SidexSide Architects used PVC-free flooring in an affordable housing development and community center in Washington. These examples show that reducing plastic in construction can be incorporated into different types of buildings without eliminating the need for materials that provide insulation, flooring or other functions that a proper building requires.
Rebuilding with Materials in Mind
For advocates, rebuilding after a wildfire is an opportunity to put these changes into practice. Rather than rebuilding communities with the same materials, policymakers can consider how construction decisions affect fire safety, human health, and environmental contamination. Reducing plastic in construction will not happen with just individual choices. Building materials are influenced by regulations, industry practices, product availability, and government decisions. As communities continue rebuilding after wildfires, advocates are asking policymakers to use those systems to make healthier, lower-plastic materials more accessible and to move the building industry toward alternatives that can support both fire resilience and community health.
Citations
Habitable Future. “Designing Out Plastics: A Blueprint for Healthier Building Materials.” Habitable Future, 2025, https://habitablefuture.org/resources/designing-out-plastics-a-blueprint-for-healthier-building-materials/.
Isaacson, Kristofer P., et al. “Drinking Water Contamination from the Thermal Degradation of Plastics: Implications for Wildfire and Structure Fire Response.” Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology, vol. 7, no. 2, 2021, pp. 274–284. https://doi.org/10.1039/D0EW00836B.
Office of the State Fire Marshal. “Building in the Wildland.” California Office of the State Fire Marshal, 2026, https://osfm.fire.ca.gov/what-we-do/community-wildfire-preparedness-and-mitigation/building-in-the-wildland.
Plastic Pollution Coalition. How Plastics Fuel Wildfires & How to Rebuild Better. Sept. 2025, https://www.plasticpollutioncoalition.org/wp-content/uploads/How-Plastics-Fuel-Wildfires-How-to-Rebuild-Better-Report.pdf.
United States Environmental Protection Agency. “Wildland Fire Research: Human Health.” U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 2026, https://www.epa.gov/air-research/wildland-fire-research-human-health.
