Deservedly or not, plastic has developed a reputation as being particularly unfriendly towards the environment. While many still dispute this, after all the term ‘plastic’ refers to a class of materials rather than one specific type, it is undeniable that plastic has an environmental history that is dubious at best. Images of trash bags filling landfill sites and satellite images of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch haven’t done plastic any favors in terms of public perception.
The Problem
Historically, plastics have been produced from oil and thus have had a considerable economic and environmental impact. In 1989, global annual plastic production was around 99 million metric tons. By the time 2012 rolled around, this number had leaped up to 288 million!
This represents many millions of barrels of crude oil. What’s worse is that much of the plastic produced is ultimately only used once and then discarded. Given that only a relatively small percentage of plastics can effectively biodegrade, this represents a serious environmental problem and one that world governments are constantly looking for new ways to tackle. One example of this is new laws recently introduced in the United Kingdom, which mirror some of those already in place in places like California. According to these laws, large stores are required to charge customers for any plastic bags they use. The idea of these laws is to encourage customers to bring their own bags or to invest in durable, long lasting bags that they can use more than once.
Oil
The dependence of plastics on oil for their production is also working against them in the current world. Oil is falling out of favor with much of the population, partly because of the environmental costs of using it but also because there is an increasing perception that oil demand is fueling war and conflict around the globe. As the world collectively moves away from fossil fuels and embraces green technologies, plastic is beginning to seem like an antiquated material with few, if any, environmentally positive aspects.
A Greener Future
There is hope for plastics still, however! For one thing, plastics still have a crucial role to play in handling waste; companies like Satellite Industries, who provide portable restrooms and restroom trailers, need certain types of plastic to safely hold chemicals which are otherwise highly corrosive.
In addition, newer manufacturing methods mean that we may soon be able to produce many of our plastics without needing any oil at all. However, there is still considerable work to be done in terms of making these manufacturing methods scalable and economically viable. One of the more interesting of these methods involves the use of liquid methane, which is then combined with a biocatalyst in order to separate out the carbon needed to produce plastic.
Plastics are a diverse group of materials that are used for a wide variety of functions in different contexts. The historical perception of plastics has been that they are needlessly harmful to the environment. It is important to recognize the merits of this argument before responding, even though we are well on our way to producing greener, biodegradable plastics in the near future.
