What Impact do plastics have on the environment?
Plastics are actually part of the solution to halting climate change if utilized correctly.
Plastics are lightweight and by replacing traditional materials in cars saves weight and give an average cut in fuel consumption of 750 Litres per 150’000km of road use!
Thanks to plastics, fuel consumption of cars is reduced by 12 million tonnes and C02 emissions by 30 million tonnes each year in Europe.
| How Much Oil is Needed for Plastics? | ||||||||||||
| USE | AS {7442afb559fe364fb8aae92c11fe80fccc8a8ac26fd7100d5b760de2a8aa7d4d} TOTAL | |||||||||||
| TRANSPORT | 45.0{7442afb559fe364fb8aae92c11fe80fccc8a8ac26fd7100d5b760de2a8aa7d4d} | |||||||||||
| Energy & Heating | 42.0{7442afb559fe364fb8aae92c11fe80fccc8a8ac26fd7100d5b760de2a8aa7d4d} | |||||||||||
| Other | 5.0{7442afb559fe364fb8aae92c11fe80fccc8a8ac26fd7100d5b760de2a8aa7d4d} | |||||||||||
| Chemicals | 4.0{7442afb559fe364fb8aae92c11fe80fccc8a8ac26fd7100d5b760de2a8aa7d4d} | |||||||||||
| Other Plastics | 2.5{7442afb559fe364fb8aae92c11fe80fccc8a8ac26fd7100d5b760de2a8aa7d4d} | |||||||||||
| Plastic Packaging | 1.5{7442afb559fe364fb8aae92c11fe80fccc8a8ac26fd7100d5b760de2a8aa7d4d} | |||||||||||
Plastics Packaging: When more is less
On average only 1{7442afb559fe364fb8aae92c11fe80fccc8a8ac26fd7100d5b760de2a8aa7d4d}-3{7442afb559fe364fb8aae92c11fe80fccc8a8ac26fd7100d5b760de2a8aa7d4d} of weight of a packaged product comes from the plastic packaging.
Glass jars for coffee are 36{7442afb559fe364fb8aae92c11fe80fccc8a8ac26fd7100d5b760de2a8aa7d4d} of the weight of a product whereas equivalent plastic pouches are only 3.5{7442afb559fe364fb8aae92c11fe80fccc8a8ac26fd7100d5b760de2a8aa7d4d} of the packaging weight. The average weight of plastic packaging has decreased by about 28{7442afb559fe364fb8aae92c11fe80fccc8a8ac26fd7100d5b760de2a8aa7d4d} in the last 10 years which is quite significant.
40{7442afb559fe364fb8aae92c11fe80fccc8a8ac26fd7100d5b760de2a8aa7d4d} of all energy consumed world-wide is used in building principally for heating and cooling. Pipes, solar panels, wind turbine rotors all contain plastics. ESP insulation and PVG-U double glazed windows and doors are essential to the energy efficiency of buildings.
“Is Substitution of Plastics an Option?”
No – In 2005 the GUA consultancy found that 40{7442afb559fe364fb8aae92c11fe80fccc8a8ac26fd7100d5b760de2a8aa7d4d} of the life cycle energy cost of products is determines by the use phase : Plastics are in general more energy efficient in the use phase than alternative materials.
Production of plastic products uses far less energy compared to traditional materials. Substitution of plastics by second best alternatives gives 26{7442afb559fe364fb8aae92c11fe80fccc8a8ac26fd7100d5b760de2a8aa7d4d} increase in energy consumption; and a 56{7442afb559fe364fb8aae92c11fe80fccc8a8ac26fd7100d5b760de2a8aa7d4d} increase to global warming.
Source: BPF Plactics – www.bpf.co.uk/