More Plastic Trash Produced In 2021 Than Ever Before: Barely 2% Of It Is Recycled

[hatrack]

When Exxon Mobil announced a record $56 billion annual profits last week, it noted that the company had established “one of the largest advanced recycling facilities in North America, capable of processing more than 80 million pounds of plastic waste per year.” That seems like a lot of recycling muscle, except when you consider another figure. The company produced an estimated 6 million metric tons, or 13.2 billion pounds, of polymers used to make plastic in 2021 alone. That is an estimate from a report published by the Minderoo Foundation, set up by the Australian mining magnate Andrew Forrest. Minderoo tracks plastic waste and campaigns against it.

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Plastics production continued to grow, according to industry data. So did plastic trash: 139 million metric tons in 2021, more than ever before. That’s a lot, especially considering that plastic entered our everyday lives after World War II. They’re so pervasive that when one reporter tried to spend a day living without plastic, it yielded this delightfully absurd essay.

Almost all of that 139 million metric tons of plastic is made from “virgin” petroleum products that have never been used or processed before. Barely 2 percent gets recycled, Minderoo researchers estimated.

It clogs streams. It chokes turtles. It gets caught on a bare branch and blows in the breeze. It stews in landfills. But it is also a climate pollutant. From the extraction of fossil fuels to make polymers to the transport and disposal of the waste, single-use plastics produced 450 million metric tons of planet-warming greenhouse gases in 2021 alone, according to estimates by Minderoo, or just below the annual emissions of Britain.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/07/climate/plastic-waste-recycling.html

[John1956PA]

1. Thanks for posting.

It is heartbreaking to think of the resources utilized in the production of single-use plastic products.

[hatrack]

2. "But it's CONVEEEEEEEEEENIENT!!!"

That'll be our collective death rattle. It was so convenient we just couldn't help ourselves.

[John1956PA]

3. I try to avoid plastic containers as much as possible. I wish I had more knowledge on how to do so.

I pack my groceries in the fewest number of plastic bags necessary. Bringing previously used bags into the stores where I shop is not permitted. I like fresh mushrooms, but I do not buy them because they are sold in single-use plastic trays. I buy pasta sauce in cans, rather than plastic jars. I live in Western Pennsylvania where a newly built mammoth Shell Oil cracking facility converts ethane gas from the fracking fields into polymers for the single-use plastic product industry. Shell's confidential assessments recognize that the soaring output of single-use plastic products in presenting an environmental crisis. Meanwhile, the cracking plant uses as mush ethane gas as its cracking capabilities can handle. The excess quantity of ethane gas is burned off into the atmosphere. It is difficult to maintain an optimistic outlook for the future of the environment.