Plastics have surprisingly carbon-intense life cycles. The overwhelming majority of plastic resins come from petroleum, which requires extraction and distillation. Then the resins are formed into products and transported to market. All of these processes emit greenhouse gases, either directly or via the energy required to accomplish them. And the carbon footprint of plastics continues even after we’ve disposed of them. Dumping, incinerating, recycling and composting (for certain plastics) all release carbon dioxide. All told, the emissions from plastics in 2015 were equivalent to nearly 1.8 billion metric tons of CO2. the global demand for plastics will increase by some 22% over the next five years. This means we’ll need to reduce emissions by 18% just to break even. Currently, 90.5% of plastic goes un-recycled worldwide.
— source news.ucsb.edu | Apr 15, 2019