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Producing plastic generates 5x the co2 contained in it.
by thinkcontext 6y ago
Producing plastic generates 5x the co2 contained in it.
- 01100011 6y agoHow does paper compare?
- gumby 6y agoI’d like to see some figures, but my understanding is that while paper production is highly polluting (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_liquor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_liquor) and consumes power in heating, transport and the like, plastic production is still worse on a carbon basis. But it’s @ thought calculation: for example you can truckload of plastic bags for less than it costs to transport a truckload of paper bags (and you can fit more plastic bags in said truck). There are other externalities, such as the dangerous properties of loose used plastic bags as well. My comment about sequestering carbon via burying toys was a joke.
- thinkcontext 6y agoI've seen between 2-3x as being papers co2 footprint but that excludes landuse changes. Transportation is a small amount of either's footprint. Your comment about paper not breaking down in an anaerobic environment is incorrect. Like other organic material such as food scraps it gets broken down by bacteria and if there's no oxygen anaerobic ones which will produce methane.
- thinkcontext 6y agoThe figure I've seen most often is between 2-3x. However, that doesn't take into account the huge variance if you consider land use changes, which depending on the land (say clearcutting Indonesian forest), could make it be over 10x.