Wow, I didn't realize that plastic production was 3 orders of magnitude different than emissions. That would likely make it seem much smaller. I'd caution read

Wow, I didn't realize that plastic production was 3 orders of magnitude different than emissions. That would likely make it seem much smaller. I'd caution reading too much into the yearly rates because it's estimated that we already have produced and tossed 8 billion tons of plastic. This would all potentially be substrate to any bacterium that is able to digest it and could be freed to the atmosphere. This is still smaller than the yearly output of emissions but breaking it all down and releasing it would result in about a years worth of emissions. I think the answer is still "yes" but it's not a concern.