Do you know how plastic impacts climate change? In a paper published in 2023 by Kayla Vasarhelyi, an honors student studying Ecology at the University of Colorado, we get some answers. The following words are hers.
“Worldwide, more than 300 million tons of plastic is produced every year, and half of this is single-use plastics. Single-use plastic includes water and soda bottles, plastic grocery bags, product packaging, straws, coffee cups and single-use plastic baggies.
Because single-use plastic is produced from fossil fuels, extracting and creating these plastics emits vast amounts of greenhouse gases.
It is estimated that just the extraction of these fossil fuels and their transportation to plastic factories emits 1.5 to 12.5 million metric tons of greenhouse gases.
Removing forested land for oil extraction and pipeline construction has also released more than 1.6 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. This land clearing also limits the amount of carbon dioxide removed from the atmosphere.
The refinement of plastics emits an additional 184 to 213 million metric tons of greenhouse gases each year.
Landfills, where single-use plastics are sent, account for more than 15% of methane emissions. The disposal of more plastics in landfills leads to increases in landfill size and these emissions.
The best way to reduce the impact of single-use plastics on climate change is to stop using this type of plastic.”