Plastic Waste and The Process of Plastic Products

When you wake up, do you turn off your alarm? Do you grab a toothbrush to start your morning routine? Maybe you reach for your water bottle for a sip or use a credit card throughout the day. All these simple, everyday items have one thing in common: they contain plastic.

Plastics are more embedded in our daily lives than we often realize. However, as you probably know, plastic pollution is one of the biggest environmental challenges we face today. We hear about this issue from time to time, but have you really considered the impact it’s having on our planet? Today, let’s explore the plastic problem, and hopefully, by the end, you’ll feel motivated to take action.

The Bigger Picture: Plastic Everywhere

First, let’s get a sense of just how much plastic we’re talking about. Since the 1950s, the world has produced over 9.2 billion metric tons of plastic. And the shocking part? Nearly 80% of it has ended up in landfills or scattered across the environment.

According to Our World in Data, a scientific publication that focuses on large global problems, plastic production has skyrocketed over the past 70 years. Back in 1950, the world produced only two million tonnes, but today that number has surged to over 450 million tonnes.

Because of the advantages of plastic including durability, lightweight, versatility and insulation, it’s essential for our lives. Since when the plastic was produced and made practical, they are used globally and thrown away all over the world.

A survey revealed that 171,774 individuals from 555 species of marine and estuarine fish, spanning 139 families and 31 orders, were studied for plastic ingestion. More than two-thirds of these species were found to have ingested plastic.

When we think of plastic waste, we often picture bottles or bags floating in the ocean, but it’s much more than that.

In a report from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, It’s estimated that GHG emissions from plastic production, covering everything from fossil fuel extraction to the creation of final products, could reach around 2.24 gigatons of carbon dioxide equivalent (GtCO2e) in 2019. This accounts for 5.3% of the world’s total GHG emissions, excluding agriculture and land use, land-use change, and forestry (LULUCF).

The process of creating, using, and disposing of plastic has a huge carbon footprint.

Let’s use the GHG emissions figure mentioned above as the foundation for our discussion.

Step 1: Making Plastic Starts with Fossil Fuels

Do you remember what plastic is made from? It is made from oil and natural gas, and getting those fossil fuels out of the ground and processed is the first step of GHG. In fact, just the extraction and transportation of these fossil fuels alone release significant amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane into the atmosphere.

Once the raw materials are ready, they go through an energy-intensive process to become the plastic items we use daily.

Step 2: Turning Oil into Plastic

After the fossil fuels are extracted, they go through a process called “cracking,” where hydrocarbons are broken down into smaller molecules. These molecules are then turned into the plastics we use, such as polyethylene or PVC (Polyvinyl Chloride).

Most emissions from plastic production—approximately 75%—occur during the stages before polymerization. These emissions primarily arise from the production of monomers, hydrocarbons, and non-hydrocarbon chemicals. As a matter of fact, over a quarter (26%) of these emissions are produced during the manufacturing of monomers such as ethylene, propylene, purified terephthalic acid (PTA), vinyl chloride monomer (VCM), and styrene.

Step 3: Plastic and Packaging—the Silent Carbon Contributor

Now, let’s talk packaging.

Do you usually use eco-bags? It’s common to see people currying bags made of cloth today. However, many countries and stores still provide plastic bags or wrappings.

Well, they’re a huge part of the problem. Around 36% of all plastic produced globally is used for packaging.

The throwaway culture of single-use plastics means more waste and more emissions. The packaging industry alone contributes about 1.7 billion metric tons of CO2 to the atmosphere every year. And it gets worse: all that plastic has to be transported, sometimes across the globe, which adds even more emissions.

Step 4: Where Does All That Plastic Go?

Did you learn what happens to the plastic after it’s done being used? There are three main possibilities: it goes to a landfill, it’s incinerated, or it gets recycled. Each of these disposal methods has its own impact on the climate.

1. Landfills: After plastic sits in a landfill, it breaks down incredibly slowly—taking hundreds or even thousands of years. As it degrades, it releases methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Methane is much more effective at trapping heat in the atmosphere than CO2.
2. Incineration: Burning plastic can get rid of waste, but it’s a double-edged sword. In truth, burning just one ton of plastic can release nearly 3 tons of CO2 into the atmosphere. It’s like trading one environmental problem for another.
3. Recycling: “This is the best way! We can make the environment better with recycling!” Did you think about this? The recycling process itself can be energy-intensive, and not all plastics can even be recycled in the first place.

However, surprisingly, only about 9% of all plastic ever produced has been recycled.

Step 5: The Ocean and Plastic’s Climate Impact

You may have seen shocking images of the ocean with a lot of garbage floating on it. But did you know that plastic in the ocean can also contribute to global warming? Oceans are vital carbon sinks, absorbing about 25% of the carbon dioxide (CO₂) that humans emit into the atmosphere.

Oceans have played a huge role in regulating the Earth’s climate by absorbing carbon dioxide quietly behind the scenes. However, when plastic waste degrades in the ocean, it disrupts the ocean’s ability to perform this function.

Even more surprising, as plastics degrade, the polymer chain shortens, loses weight, and emits greenhouse gases such as CO₂ (carbon dioxide) or CH₄ (methane).

In conclusion

Many people may think the active campaigns to reduce plastic are making a difference and that the world is heading toward improvement. However, the reality isn’t that simple.

Estimates indicate that greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from global plastic production could increase significantly between 2019 and 2050. Under a growth scenario of 2.5% per year, emissions from primary plastic production could more than double to 4.75 GtCO₂e by 2050. In a more aggressive growth scenario of 4% per year, emissions could nearly triple, reaching 6.78 GtCO₂e by 2050.

So, even replacing plastic bags with eco-bags, eliminating plastic straws, and recycling plastic are not enough. What we need is collaborate to tackle this challenging problem. Let’s take action together. You can share these facts with your friends and encourage them to reduce plastic use. Moreover, you can support environmental initiatives or assist in projects through carbon credits as well.

The key is in your hand. Let’s make the world better place together.