From cradle to grave, plastics are producing carbon emissions. According to the World Economic Forum about 4-8% of annual global oil consumption today is associated with plastics. If this overuse of plastics persists, plastics will account for 20% of oil consumption by 2050.[i]
Extraction and transport
Many people don’t realise that plastic is made from oil . Oil and gas are the fossil-fuel building blocks of plastics. Natural gas and oil are often extracted from the earth through fracking and then transported to other facilities via pipelines, trains, and trucks. Extraction and transportation of these fossil fuels is a carbon-intensive activity.
Refining and manufacturing
Refining plastics is also greenhouse-gas intensive. In 2015, emissions from manufacturing ethylene the building block of plastic , were about as much as 45 million passenger vehicles emit during one year
Waste management
Globally, about 40% of plastics are used as single use packaging. This packaging can be processed in three different ways: landfill, incineration, or recycling.
Incineration: Waste incineration has the largest climate impact of the three options.
Landfilling has a much lower climate impact than incineration. The plastic traps organic waste which then releases methane, which is more than 28 times as potent as carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere
Recycling: Compared to the low costs of virgin materials, recycled plastics are high cost with low commercial value. This makes recycling profitable only rarely, so it requires considerable government subsidies. Research from the Ellen MacArthur Foundation suggests that only 2% of plastics are recycled into products with the same function. Another 8% are “downcycled” to something of lower quality. The rest is landfilled, leaked into the environment, or incinerated.
To combat climate change, we have to also fight plastic pollution. We need a plastic detox!
[i] https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2019/08/how-plastics-contribute-to-climate-change/
