The Texas residents who collected evidence that contributed to the fight against Formosa Plastics in the state was one of the largest examples of citizen collected evidence to prosecute a claim like theirs.

They were concerned about pollution from microplastics in the environment and they went around gathering samples from everywhere they could.

There are activitists around the country who have stood up to bring attention to the actions of this company. In the U.S. a judge in 2019 approved of a settlement agreement with the company that made it the biggest of settlement of its kind in history to come from a citizen environmental suit, a $50 million settlement.

a Judge ruled that they had illegally dumped billions of pellets into local waterways, along with other pollutants.

The damage that was inflicted upon the community and the environment, what sort of price can be placed on that? And on the future generations that might suffer? All of this happened with state authorities like the EPA in place that are supposed to prevent against this from happening. Children's lemonade stands in the U.S. can and have been shut down promptly when those kids operate without a license, meanwhile we see corporations like this pollute communities in the country and get a slap on the wrist with fines and settlements. They are still operating and have not been shut down despite the alleged incredible pollution and damage that has been caused by their actions.

When is enough, enough? Now this company is looking to expand in the U.S. but there has been increased scrutiny for it now because the information has gotten out about what those citizens knew, collected, and shared about. There is going to be an environmental review now, but after how many years of damage has been inflicted?

If the project for expansion gets completed then the Formosa project would become one of the largest plastic facilities in the world.

It's bringing in money and jobs, that's why it is getting support from officials. But that was also the promise in Texas years ago as well, before those employees and others gathered evidence and shared their stories of the damage that had allegedly been inflicted from harmful and immoral business practices along the way. Those employees admit to allegedly seeing chemicals and pollutants being washed down storm drains and being improperly disposed of, among other issues.

is the problem still going on?

It looks like environmental activists are still busy taking samples and allege that the problem might still be going on, with the plant releasing plastic pollution despite that significant settlement.

If the settlements don't deter the harmful activity, then what will? Aside from the pellet pollution it's also had to pay millions to settle air pollution charges as well, but this is after the damage has been inflicted, it doesn't seem to be slowing them down any.