Plastic: The New Coal?

According to a new report released by the NGO Beyond Plastics, plastic—not coal-fired power plants—will be a primary culprit for greenhouse gas emissions.

What Has and Hasn’t Changed?

At the heart of the increasing plastic pollution problem as the key “villain” of the climate change are hydrofracking and perhaps more importantly, our limited understanding of plastic pollution.

Hydrofracking

For one thing, instead of chemicals and oils, a byproduct of hydrofracking is now being used to produce plastics. The process in turn generates large amounts of “environment-deadly” fracked waste gas which are then sent to ethane cracker facilities.

There Might be More

Despite its already staggering estimates, however, the report might be underestimating the amount of hydrofracking-induced pollutants since the organization can’t capture the effect of certain sources such as “foamed plastic insulations in people’s homes” or “the amount of plastic burned at cement kilns”.

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Plastic Recycling: Where We At

“I think the public understands the problems with coal plants,” Judith Enck, the former regional Environmental Protection Agency administrator and president of Beyond Plastics, says. “But now we need to really grasp that plastic pollution is not just a serious water quality issue.”

Moreover, even though it seems like there has been increased public awareness for serious environmental sustainability issues caused by plastics, plastic recycling still has a long way to go; only 8.5% of plastics get recycled. Indeed, plastic production and disposal deserve a bigger spot on the climate change agenda.

Plan B for the Fuel Industry

The problem with plastics is all the more alarming if plastic production is “the Plan B” for the fossil fuel industry.

“The fossil fuel industry knows that they're losing money from burning fossil fuels at coal plants. They're going to lose money from petroleum sales because more and more people are shifting to electric cars investments in mass transit,” Enck says.