Plastics can reduce environmental costs by nearly four times compared to their alternatives
Plastics can reduce environmental costs by nearly four times compared to their alternatives
According to a recent report by the plastic and the sustainable development: environmental benefits, cost evaluation and continuous improvement ", found that the use of plastic in consumer goods and packaging of the environmental cost is lower than the environmental costs of the other alternative materials 4 times. Report by natural capital value assessment of global leaders Trucost release, and get the support of the American chemistry council, research based on natural capital accounting method, using non-traditional typical factors of financial accounting, including measuring and assessing the environmental impact, such as water consumption and emissions in the air, land and water.
The report showed that replacing consumer goods and plastics in packaging with alternative materials that provide the same function would increase environmental costs from $139 billion a year to $533 billion. This is because solid, lightweight plastics help us do more with less material, which provides environmental benefits throughout the life cycle of plastic products and packaging.
Study concluded that although such as glass, tin, aluminum and paper in many consumer goods is a viable substitute for plastic, in most cases, their tons of production environment cost may be lower than plastic, but because of need more additional materials to achieve the same purpose as the plastic, so it is more generally. For example, typical plastic soft-drink bottles in the United States contain 30 grams of plastic. But if the weighted average combination of alternative materials used in the current market is substituted for equivalent volumetric flask replacement materials, such as glass and tin, the consumption is 3-4 times.
In 2015 consumer plastic products and packaging of the social environment cost more than $139 billion, equivalent to nearly 20% of the plastic manufacturing sector revenue, if current trends continue, by 2025 is expected to grow to $209 billion. This includes the cost to society due to the impact of greenhouse gas emissions: air pollution, land and water pollution, water consumption, ocean impacts and other costs arising from the entire plastic value chain. These external costs reflect the future risks of the plastics industry's profitability.
This study as the pioneering evaluation study of plastic, clear focus on how to use plastic, by comparing the relative environmental performance, the plastic make consumer goods more sustainable, and through the plastic key leverage points of value chain research possible strategic intervention to bring net environmental benefits. The report's authors suggest to take measures to help further reduce the overall environmental cost of plastic, such as by adding in the production of plastic use low-carbon electricity, with low emissions transportation pattern, developing more efficient plastic packaging, and increase recycling and energy conversion of plastic, to help curb the ocean trash and save resources. In addition, by increasing regulation to optimize business costs (for example, carbon emissions), promote the use of plastic related customers and communities to reduce external environmental costs. At the same time, strengthen the industry of plastic industry and consumer goods industry, linkage government, non-governmental organization and consumer, to solve plastic environmental cost.
