Mass production of plastics started nearly 70 years ago so before that time we were able to sustain advanced technologies without the use of plastics. Since that time production increased significantly and doubling in the last two decades. Aside from their ability to break down into micro particles and move their way up the food chain, and the increasing deaths caused by animal mistaking the plastids for food, plastics also give off fossil fuel gases. Plastic is known to release a variety of chemicals during degradation, which has a negative impact on biota. The most commonly used plastics produce two greenhouse gases, methane and ethylene, when exposed to ambient solar radiation. So this process has been an unrecognized source of climate-relevant trace gases that are expected to increase as more plastic is produced and accumulated in the environment.
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| Plastic pollution on a beach in San Juan, Puerto Rico, April 3, 2018. (Photo: Rey Perezoso, Flickr) |
Carroll Muffett, president and CEO of the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), explained to me in an interview that "plastics are simply fossil fuels in another form. Ninety-nine percent of what goes into plastics are oil, gas and, to a lesser extent, coal feed stocks." As a result, "the processes that produce plastics begin at wellheads and at frack pads across the United States and around the world." According to Muffett, every step in the production of the plastic we casually use and toss away has an impact on the climate, from the emissions released during extractive processes like fracking to the transporting of the raw materials to plants and beyond. Because ever fewer plastics are getting recycled, many communities across the globe are also burning their plastic trash as fuel, adding more emissions into our already saturated atmosphere. And the plastic that is not recycled or incinerated itself emits potent greenhouse gases like methane and ethylene, as a 2018 study has alarmingly shown.
Mass production of plastics started nearly 70 years ago so before that time we were able to sustain advanced technologies without the use of plastics. Since that time production increased significantly and doubling in the last two decades. Aside from their ability to break down into micro particles and move their way up the food chain, and the increasing deaths caused by animal mistaking the plastids for food, plastics also give off fossil fuel gases. Plastic is known to release a variety of chemicals during degradation, which has a negative impact on biota. The most commonly used plastics produce two greenhouse gases, methane and ethylene, when exposed to ambient solar radiation. So this process has been an unrecognized source of climate-relevant trace gases that are expected to increase as more plastic is produced and accumulated in the environment.
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