WasteDive.com has written up the report from the Center for International Environment Law research, into
each [stage] of the plastic lifecycle to identify the major sources of greenhouse gas emissions, sources of uncounted emissions, and uncertainties that likely lead to underestimation of plastic’s climate impacts.
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Most conventional plastic and plastic-like products begin lifecycle with the petrochemical industry pumping, digging, and mountain-topping it out of the earth: oil, gas and coal alone are raw material for worlds more than just fuel.
Chapter 4 of the report, for example, is titled Extraction and Transport, covering ■ the origins of plastic, ■ the current and projected growth of petrochemical production ■ Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Oil and Gas Production for Plastic Feedstocks ■ Natural Gas in the United States ■ Greenhouse Gases from Natural Gas Extraction ■ Hydraulic Fracturing ■ Pipeline and compressor station construction and operation impacts …
Once considered a relative non-issue compared to emissions from organic waste, it appears that plastic may play a more significant role in the climate crisis than previously realized.
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In 2019, plastic production and incineration will add more than 850 million metric tons of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere — the equivalent of pollution from 189 new 500-megawatt coal-fired power plants.
If production and use increase as planned, these emissions could reach 1.34 gigatons per year by 2030 (equal to more than 295 500-megawatt coal-fired plants) and over 56 gigatons by 2050 — 10-13% of our entire remaining carbon budget (the amount of carbon dioxide emissions we can sustain while still having a chance of limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius).
The American Chemistry Council (ACC), a trade association representing U.S. chemical companies, pushed back against the findings.
"Unfortunately, the CIEL report focuses largely on the anticipated growth of plastic production but fails to note that production is growing in response to increasing global demand for lightweight automotive parts, building insulation, and product packaging — all of which will play an important role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and helping people live more sustainably around the world," said Steve Russell, vice president of ACC's Plastics Division, in a statement.
Nevertheless, the report recommends several key actions:
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Ending the production and use of single-use, disposable plastics✱
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Halting development of oil, gas and petrochemical infrastructure
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Fostering the transition to "zero waste"
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Establishing extended producer responsibility as an integral part of circular economies
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Adopting and enforcing ambitious targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from all sectors — including the plastics industry
"It has long been clear that plastic threatens the global environment and puts human health at risk," said CIEL President Carroll Muffett in a statement. "This report demonstrates that plastic, like the rest of the fossil economy, is putting the climate at risk as well. Because the drivers of the climate crisis and the plastic crisis are closely linked, so to are their solutions: humanity must end its reliance on fossil fuels and on fossil plastics that the planet can no longer afford."
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✱ hopefully excepting medical applications where microbial transmission would be an issue: e.g., medscape (free site, reg'n required): Commentary: Ways We Transmit Pathogens to Hospitalized Patients.
CIEL.org’s report page supplies links to the full report pdf, the four-page executive summary, and the press release. Various chapters cover greenhouse gases from ■ Refining and Manufacture ■ Plastic Waste Management ■ Plastic in the Environment ■ and their tables include key stats, process/flow-chart graphics, among other visuals. Research methodology and Findings & Recommendations start and end the chapter list.
Wastedive.com’s brief write-up is HERE. Anyone can read free at the site and at the other ‘dive’-sites (and evidently anyone can sign up to receive email notifications — just leave the company field blank and the site registers you anyway). All these sites offer illuminating, well-written intra-industry articles that open windows into what the businesses in those industries are doing for good and for ill, what drives their changes, how communities and groups are involved in change and in status quo, and who, what, when, where, how and why — all the dynamics that leadership opinion among kosaks have to grasp in order to help stoke effective choices of action in economy and environment by us and everyone we may want to try to persuade to join in our action.
Example of additional information acquired at WasteDive — a link to Tiny E.Timor to become world's first plastic-neutral nation
KUALA LUMPUR (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - In a region where seas are awash with trash, East Timor is set to become the world’s first country to recycle all its plastic waste after it teamed up with Australian researchers on Friday to build a revolutionary recycling plant.
The $40-million plant will ensure that no plastic, once used in the Southeast Asian nation, would become waste, but would instead be turned into new products.
Dili said it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Australia’s Mura Technology to establish a non-profit called RESPECT that will run the plastic recycling plant, expected to launch by the end of 2020.
“This is a small country where we can make a statement - making the whole country the first to be plastic neutral, in a region where there is the largest pollution of marine life,” said Thomas Maschmeyer, co-inventor of the recycling technology to be used in the new plant.
“Plastic - if you don’t dispose of it well - is a terrible thing (but) if you can dispose of it well, it’s a great thing….”
Please look for and read original reportage whenever possible — don’t wait for someone else to choose what to tell you about, because they’re also choosing what to leave out, and what they think you can’t handle. Just sayin’.