Plastic production will soon overtake the coal industry in emissions
Which raw material or which material do you think of first when it comes to the origin of greenhouse gases? Money? Gas? Or something completely different? Very few would have thought of plastic, but if a new study has its way, plastic could still be dangerous to us in this regard in the next few years.
Although focused the report of Beyond Plastics to the United States, but it is noteworthy that there plastic could overtake coal as a greenhouse gas emitter in the next decade. In 2020 alone, the production of the plastic caused the emission of 232 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalents, 116 coal-fired power plants emit this amount.
It is unlikely that the demand for plastic will decrease in the next few years. Even if alternatives are now being researched in many places, no material has so far been able to really compete with classic plastic. Therefore, greenhouse gas emissions from plastic production will probably exceed those of the coal industry by 2030.
Current construction projects underline this forecast. As of 2019, around 42 new factories for the production of plastics in the USA are planned, in preparation or have already started production. Frequently, emissions in this industry are also underestimated, as those that are not taken into account during the transport of raw materials or in the event of leaks in production.
Therefore, the researchers also warn that the numbers could represent values that are too low. The study also reveals other problems, such as the fact that so far only around 9 percent of the material has been recycled and a few municipalities are burdened with 90 percent of all emissions.
If we look at Europe and Germany, the situation doesn’t look much better. So published the Heinrich Böll Foundation numbers, according to which more than 2.75 billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalents could be produced in this country by the production of plastics by 2050. This corresponds roughly to the output of 615 coal-fired power plants, so an exit from this very energy production could be undone by industry.
Via Gizmodo
