What has Plastic got to do with the Climate Crisis?

Climate change and the plastic crisis: two major environmental disasters spurred by human action but what else do they have in common? On the surface the two issues may appear pretty separate, yet plastic is once again living up to its reputation as a global menace. Every year we produce 300 million tons of plastic. Hard to imagine? Picture 1,000 empire state buildings in a stylish street. The weight of these 1,000 buildings is the amount of plastic we produce a year. So when I also tell you that plastic produces greenhouse gases at every stage of its life cycle, it suddenly all seems like quite an important issue.

Plastic production is increasing around the world and has been since the swinging sixties. Today’s boom in production is spurred by the discovery of new sources of the so called ‘liquid gold’ as modern fracking extracts hidden oil reserves whilst the Arctic is becoming a hotspot for the oil giants. Once oil has been squeezed out of the earth, it is sent to refineries which separates the sticky liquid into heavy and light fractions, each made up of various hydrocarbon chains of which some are used to make plastic. As oil is extracted at greater rates to fuel our world’s development, the hydrocarbon leftovers allow more and more plastic to be produced with the number of new or expanded petrochemical plants in America increasing by 25% in 2017. Currently 8% of all the oil produced in the world goes in to making plastic goods, yet it is predicted that this will rise to 20% in only 30 years. For developed countries, fossil fuels provided the basis for industrialisation and now plastics are the consequence of that. Yet many developing countries are still catching up, meaning they haven’t reached peak production and their population has not yet fallen in love with the novel, fashionable, quick to use quick to throw goods which fill shop windows. Looking ahead to 2100, it is predicted that the greatest demand will come from the Middle East, Africa and some parts of Asia while Europe and North America will finally calm their insatiable demand which will stabilise at the current level.

Yet this level is arguably still far too high. As biodegradable forms of plastic are yet to be perfectly designed, leaving them useless in industrial settings, the climate effects of fossil fuel extraction remain. Fracking requires tons of sand and billions of gallons of precious freshwater, while drilling can release toxic gases into the atmosphere. Carbon monoxide, methane (a gas 21 times more powerful than carbon dioxide), ozone and hydrogen sulphide doesn’t sound like a cocktail anyone wants to get near, let alone inhale. The release of climate warming gases can also occur from leaks in gas pipelines or in the form of diesel emissions from the ships, planes and trucks which transport first the raw materials, then our finished product and finally our waste.

After we have finished with our handy plastic item, it can take several routes through life. New research has shown that decomposing plastic releases powerful greenhouse gases. Low-density polyethylene (LDPE) forms our washing up bottles, shopping bags and many more common household items, yet its weak chemical structure means it is easily broken down in the environment, releasing harmful gases as it does so. Due to its weak structure, sunlight and heat breaks it down very quickly with the microplastic particles covering a greater surface area and releasing even more greenhouse gas. This is a major problem as this is the most prevalent plastic item in our oceans. Once broken down into teeny microplastics, they also pose issues to phytoplankton which accidentally feed on these toxic particles, causing their death and the carbon dioxide which is stored within them is being released back to the sea surface where it bubbles into the atmosphere.

For those plastic items which make it down secure waste disposal routes, they are often incinerated, a growing trend as we run out of landfill space while recycling facilities in developing nations cannot keep up with demand. In the UK in 2017, incinerators released 11 million tons of Earth-warming carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and this only represents a tiny amount of waste as a mere 14% of the single use packaging we use is sent to be burnt. Packaging is the largest and fastest growing segment of the plastic economy, totalling a colossal 40% of our total plastic demand yet it remains extremely difficult to recycle and is easily blown away from crowded landfills. While incineration safely keeps plastic out of our environment, recycling actually releases less carbon dioxide as it stems the need for brand new items to be produced from fossil fuels. As single use plastic is increasingly deemed unnecessary and still remains almost impossible to recycle efficiently, it seems the solution is writing it out of our system all together.

It is for all these reasons that plastic is a critical factor to consider when we try to tackle our climate crisis. We are lacking global conferences on plastic pollution yet these annual meetings are now favoured amongst governments regarding climate change. Plastic threatens the revolutionary Paris Climate Agreement as this material’s reliance on fossil fuels and harmful decomposition means we will struggle to stop global temperatures rising above 1.5 degrees Celsius. In only 30 years’ time, plastic will be responsible for 13% of our total carbon budget set out under the agreement, the equivalent of 615 full time coal fired power stations. Some have compared plastic to nuclear power. Nuclear can be used for the good to create clean energy or it can be used for the bad to create warfare. Similarly, plastic can be an abundant, persistent, greenhouse gas emitting material if we let it, or we can use it to actually help solve part of our global warming disaster by applying it to lightweight cars and planes which in turn will allow more fuel efficiency. At an individual level, we can all choose to use plastic for the good by avoiding single use plastic and products where sustainable alternatives are easily available. If the climate activists and the zero waste warriors join forces, we could see a dramatic change in two of the most pressing problems facing our generation.

By Neve McCracken-Heywood