Plastic Waste – A Case of the Tail Wagging the Dog?

A new report just released by Greenpeace shows how fast-moving consumer goods companies like Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Nestlé are fueling the radical expansion of plastic production by ExxonMobil, Dow, and other petrochemical manufacturers.

Across the lifecycle of fossil-fueled plastics, the implications are stark – more climate change, harm to human health, environmental injustice, and plastic waste.  The growing production, use, and disposal of petrochemical plastics adds to serious ongoing impacts:

• Greenhouse gas emissions, currently equivalent to about 200 coal-fired power plants, are projected to grow to 10% to 15% of the entire fossil carbon budget by 2050, says a report by the Center for International Environmental Law;
• Of the more than 10,000 chemicals used to make plastics, about 24% are hazardous to human health or the environment, and 39% pose unknown hazards, according to a recent research paper by credible scientists; and
• A majority of the heavily over-burdened community residents who live near petrochemical manufacturing plants in the United States are people of color and lower income, according to a recent analysis and prior study of fossil fuel racism.

Greenpeace joins many others in the #breakfreefromplastics movement who are calling on consumer brand-owners to phase-out single use disposable packaging, transition to more reusable containers, and abandon false “recycling” solutions. Federal legislation would speed solutions, yet market leadership is needed to embolden policymakers to act.

This is the latest in a series of reports that document the plastic waste threat, made most visceral by media images of sea birds and sea turtles choking to death on plastic litter. Other comprehensive takes on plastic waste have been rolled out in recent years by Mindaroo Foundation, The Pew Charitable Trusts, and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. But none come close to Greenpeace on the primacy of environmental justice and corporate accountability.

Nonetheless, all this focus on plastic waste fouling the world’s beaches may be a case of the tail wagging the dog. Consumer product packaging accounts for only about one-quarter of all uses of plastics.

By limiting their focus to plastic packaging, these reports have seriously undercounted the total production of plastics, and all of its attendant impacts on our climate, human health, and social justice.

Our own full accounting shows that about 469 million metric tons of plastics were produced worldwide in 2019, a much higher amount than other estimates. That includes plastics that take longer than one year to become waste, the plastic fibers used to make about two-thirds of all clothing (and more), and the many chemical additives that plastics require to work effectively.

Shockingly, the petrochemical industry plans to double production of plastics again by 2040! What a convenient sink for the fossil carbon markets that Big Oil will lose to electric vehicles and renewable energy.

Halting and reversing the impacts of petrochemical plastics remains a daunting task. Yes, big brand owners must be held accountable to phase out their single-use disposable packaging. Greenpeace and others are right on point there. But much more is needed.

Several scientists have called for a phase out of all ‘virgin’ plastic production by 2040, which would help rein in the climate crisis and lessen the environmental injustice and health threats caused by our reliance on petrochemicals.

We need a just transition to a world where the materials we need are safe and sustainable for all people and the planet. But what once seemed like utopian vision sounds more and more like a crisis-driven imperative. It’s well past time that we move beyond petrochemical plastics.