A study shows that production of plastics in the United States is on track to contribute more greenhouse gas emissions, which lead to climate change, than coal plants by 2030. The researchers have found that the US plastics industry, as of 2020, is releasing at least 232 million tonnes of greenhouse gases each year. This is the equivalent of 116 average-sized (500-megawatt) coal-fired power plants.

Titled ‘The New Coal: Plastics and Climate Change’, the report was released yesterday on October 21 by Beyond Plastics, a nationwide project based at Bennington College in Bennington, Vermont (USA), which is working to end plastic pollution.

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The study warns that the emissions from the plastics industry are growing quickly. In 2020, the plastics industry’s reported emissions increased by 10 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions over 2019.

The report concluded that the US plastics industry’s contribution to climate change is on track to exceed that of coal-fired power by 2030. 

“The scale of the plastics industry’s greenhouse gas emissions is staggering, but it’s equally concerning that few people in government or in the business community are even talking about it,” Judith Enck, president of Beyond Plastics, was quoted as saying in the press statement dated October 21.

“That must change quickly if we hope to remain within the 1.5° C global temperature increase scientists have pinpointed as critical to avoiding the most devastating impacts of climate change,” Enck added.

The report detailed the ten stages when plastics emit significant greenhouse gases, including polymers and additives production and chemical recycling — a term used by the plastics industry to describe the processing of plastic waste into fuel.

The study by Beyond Plastics also pointed out that less than nine per cent of plastics in the US are recycled. This when the plastics industry has long touted plastic’s recyclability. “New proposals for “chemical recycling” or “advanced recycling” actually have more in common with incineration—a major source of both climate emissions and harmful air pollutants,” reads the study.

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Most of these facilities spend vast amounts of energy catalyzing chemical changes designed to turn plastics into more burnable fuel. The burning of plastics made in the US already releases an estimated 15 million tonnes of greenhouse gases each year. If we turn to these processes to handle plastic waste, the emissions impacts would be even greater, warned the report.

Apart from accelerating climate change, plastic pollutes water, air, soil, wildlife, and health, especially in low-income communities and communities of colour. The US plastics industry released 114 million tonnes of greenhouse gases nationwide in 2020. “Ninety per cent of its reported climate change pollution occured in 18 communities where residents earn 28 per cent less than the average US household and are 67 per cent more likely to be people of colour.”