supply chains / story
![](https://i0.wp.com/globalreportingcentre.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/nbc-news.png?resize=220%2C68&ssl=1)
Months after residents sound the alarm, Pennsylvania ‘cracks’ down on Shell plant
Shell to pay $10 million to Pennsylvania for exceeding emissions limits during the troubled start-up of its massive new plastics plant. The new ethane ‘cracker’ officially switched on last November. The cracker plant had a series of malfunctions this spring, as residents and activists pressed the Department of Environmental Protection to step in. Published in partnership with NBC News.
![](https://i0.wp.com/globalreportingcentre.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/photo-plastics-2.jpg?resize=960%2C880&ssl=1)
Supply Chains / story
![](https://i0.wp.com/globalreportingcentre.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/nbc-news.png?resize=220%2C68&ssl=1)
The new steel?
This feature story gets a first-hand account from people who see the economic opportunity of a new plastics complex — as well as those who “fear a return to a toxic past for a product the world needs less of.”
Written by Hannah Rappleye with the Investigative Unit at NBC News.
![](https://i0.wp.com/globalreportingcentre.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/plastics-plant-day.jpg?resize=960%2C880&ssl=1)
Supply Chains / Explainer
The house that plastic built
Our world is flooded with cheap subsidized plastic. How did we get here? A look back at the history of a now-indispensable industry.
This was an honourable mention for the DPA for Best Science & Technology Storytelling.
![](https://i0.wp.com/globalreportingcentre.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/truck.gif?resize=960%2C880&ssl=1)