Diane Wilson: 2023 Goldman Environmental Prize Winner

American Diane Wilson, who held a powerful plastics company accountable for dumping toxic waste off the Texas coast of the Gulf of Mexico, has been awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize 2023 on Monday.

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The prize is awarded each year to grassroots activists from the world's six inhabited continents. A formal award ceremony will be held in Washington, D.C., at 8:30 p.m.

This year, the Goldman Environmental Foundation's recipients are: Chilekwa Mumba of Zambia; Zafer Kizilkaya of Türkiye; Tero Mustonen of Finland; Delima Silalahi of Indonesia; Alessandra Korap Munduruku of Brazil; and Diane Wilson of the U.S.

The peace group CODEPINK, of which Diane Wilson, 74, has been a member for 20 years as co-founder, celebrated that "she is receiving this well-deserved recognition." 

"She fights for her fishermen and her bay. She fights for people all over the world. She understands and feels deeply the connections between the environment and war," the grassroots feminist organization said in a press release.

In December 2019, Diane Wilson won a landmark case against Formosa Plastics, one of the world's largest petrochemical companies, for illegally dumping toxic plastic waste on the Texas Gulf Coast. 

The director and founder of Calhoun County Resource Watch and executive director of San Antonio Bay Estuarine Waterkeeper won a 50 million dollar settlement. It is considered the largest settlement in U.S. history in which a private citizen brings a lawsuit against an industrial polluter under federal clean air and clean water legislation.

Formosa Plastics agreed to settle for zero discharge of plastic waste from its Point Comfort plant, pay fines until the discharges cease, and fund the rehabilitation of affected wetlands, beaches and local waterways.