The initial question begged further clarification - did you mean how
much oil is a byproduct of producing plastic bags (i.e. wasted) or how
much oil is used? Many industrial processes of course have byproducts -
which we as environmentalists are all seeking to make sure get a high
level of use or reuse.
Anyway, I just checked the American Plastics Council website to see if
there was an answer to the first and this next interesting question of
'are plastic bags made from a byproduct of refining or not?' But
nothing there. The curious researcher wishing to chase this down further
could give them a call and get some clarity.
http://www.americanplasticscouncil.org
Anne
Gracestone, Inc.
303.494.4934 vox
303.494.4880 fax
thudbranch@no.address wrote:
While I believe most plastics do not come from the waste of oil
refining, but rather represent one more use of that multiple use
commodity. Realize that paper bags use several times as much oil to
make and do their own kinds of environmental damage. For instance it
takes 3 or 4 times the number of trucks to deliver the same number of
paper bags as plastic bags to the markets.
If we care, rather than waste bags we should start carrying reusable
bag(s) with us everywhere we shop.
Greg
Rod Muir wrote:
It is my understanding that, ironically, plastic is made from the (waste)
by-product of petroleum or NG refinement.
That in the past much of this by-product was simply flared off or otherwise
wasted?
As a result it's hard to say that there is a net loss in gasoline or heating
fuel availability because of plastic production.
Finally, that the reason there's so much more plastic around is that we are
refining so much more Pet. and NG for energy use?
Thanks,
Rod Muir
Sierra Club of Canada
----- Original Message -----
From: "Norm Ruttan" <normruttan@no.address>
To: "GreenYes" <GreenYes@no.address>
Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2006 8:05 AM
Subject: [GreenYes] Re: Fwd: Plastic Bags - how much oil is wasted in
producing them?
The world uses between 500 billion and 1 trillion plastic grocery bags
a year.
About 3 percent become litter-hanging from fences or trees, clogging
storm drains, and causing problems for wildlife. Many bags are
recycled. About 50% end up as waste.
67 bags weigh 1 pound, so 500 billion bags= 7,462,685,567 pounds of
white plastic grocery bags going to landfills each year.
Pound for pound, plastics contain as much energy as petroleum or
natural gas, so this represents the loss of almost 4 billion tons of
energy each year.
More information <a href="
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/09/0902_030902_plasticbags.html";>
here </a>
|