CLIMATE MARCH: ‘PLASTICS ARE THE NEW COAL’
October 29, 2021 | Plastic Soup Foundation
In a recently published report, From Pollution to Solution, the United Nations warns that our addiction to disposable plastic is contributing to the climate crisis. But it seems as if it is taboo to talk about the part plastic plays in climate change. This needs to change and to change fast.
‘Plastics are the new coal’. This will be Plastic Soup Foundation’s message at the Climate March on 6 November.
MORE EMISSIONS FROM PLASTIC THAN FROM COAL IN THE USA
Recent research entitled The new coal: plastics and climate change shows in detail the scale of emissions in each link of the plastic chain in the United States. The chain goes from the extraction of shale gas at one end to the incineration of discarded plastic at the other.
By 2030, the plastics industry in the USA will emit more greenhouse gases than coal-fired power stations. Another comparison in the report is that as of 2020, the plastics industry in the USA accounts for at least 232 million tonnes of CO2 every year, the equivalent of 116 500 megawatt coal-fired power stations. If the emissions of new plastic factories, such as Shell’s in Pennsylvania, are included, this would be 55 million tonnes (the equivalent of 27 coal-fired power stations) more.
PLASTIC POLLUTION AND THE CLIMATE
Through its greenhouse gas emissions, plastic production is thus making global warming worse. However, it has another effect too. That very same warming of the earth in turn makes plastic pollution even worse. Extreme weather events and floods caused by climate change will only increase the spread of plastic in the environment.
Ecosystems in the marine environment are under severe pressure from both rising temperatures and plastic. These two phenomena then reinforce each other, say researchers in Science.