Plastic Profile Day Seven

On the 324th birthday of Daniel Fahrenheit, and the 34th day of the Deep Water Horizon disaster, I have the same amount of plastic to throw away as I usually do. Since Fahrenheit gave us the first common scale for measuring temperature (later superseded by the Celsius scale) I thought it pertinent to highlight the contribution plastic makes to global warming.

Nowadays it seems that the oil industry is synonymous with the rising trend in climate change. The more hydrocarbons we consume, the more carbon dioxide gets released into the atmosphere. In my last post I already mentioned that no less than eight percent of world oil production goes to manufacturing plastics, and that is expected to increase as our appetite for plastic grows unabated.

Cheap and plentiful oil has resulted in cheap and plentiful plastic. Over the years, however, it has gotten harder and harder to extract oil from the ground, and we have had to venture in hostile territory to get to it. The ever volatile situation in the Middle East has forced many nations to seek out oil reserves in deeper and deeper waters around their coastline. The North Sea and the Gulf of Mexico oil rigs are a good example. Although these rigs are situated in a less politically volatile region, we seem to have swapped out environmental safety for political safety. The Deep Water Horizon disaster is a stark reminder of the risks deep water drilling carries. This is now officially the worst oil spill disaster in the United States, and its effects will be felt for years to come.

If getting to this precious oil is so fraught with danger, should we not use anything that requires oil sparingly? Logic would say yes, but unfortunately we are not rational creatures. Just look at the amount of petroleum our cars use, or consider all the plastic wrappers we throw away on a daily basis. All made with oil. The best example of our wasteful consumption habit is bottled water. The Pacific Institute estimates that the equivalent of more than 17 million barrels of oil were used to produce the plastic water bottles consumed in 2006. In countries like the US, water from taps is perfectly potable and often even better quality than their bottled counterparts.  In fact, many consider bottled water a great big scam, making consumers pay many times more for something they can get out of their tap. Worse, the production of the bottle contributes to our insatiable demand for crude oil.

So how much plastic did I throw away today which may have been made with oil extracted by the Deep Water Horizon? Here is the list:

1. Two Cup Covers
2. One Granola Bar Wrapper
3. One Wine Bottle Bag
4. Two Fresh Herb Containers
5. Three Fresh Vegetable Bags
6. One Fresh Vegetable Cling Wrap with Styrofoam
7. Three Plastic Bags

1. Two Cup Covers
For my daily dose of Americanos, of course.

2. One Granola Bar Wrapper
Another wrapper from my granola habit.

3. One Wine Bottle Bag
After realizing how much plastic was involved with a simple take-out meal, I decided to cook dinner myself this time. On the menu was a simple pasta with a nice red wine. I bought this bottle at a nice wine store that also wraps your purchase in a nice plastic bag specifically designed to fit a wine bottle.

4. Two Fresh Herb Containers
For my pasta I bought two types of herbes, oregano and thyme. Each came in their separate container.

5. Three Fresh Vegetable Bags
I bought some fresh courgettes, garlic, and unions. Each was pre-packaged in a plastic bag at the super market.

6. One Fresh Vegetable Cling Wrap with Styrofoam
I bought some nice tomatoes to make a simple red pasta sauce. The tomatoes were pre-wrapped at the supermarket in a Styrofoam container covered in cling-wrap.

7. Three Plastic Bags
My cooking spree unfortunately also resulted in three plastic bags in which all my purchases were stacked.

So there you have it, a total tally of 15 plastic pieces.

Fifteen pieces of plastic that was made from hard won crude oil simply thrown away. It is like pouring petroleum down the drain.

To once again end my post with some good news, however, a Dutch researcher was able to produce ethene (the most important raw material for plastic) from natural gas instead of crude oil. This paves the way for producing plastic from biogas, which can make biodegradable plastic completely carbon neutral.

Of course, we can also reduce our use of oil by simply using glass containers instead of plastic where possible. You may know Fahrenheit from the Fahrenheit scale, but what you may not know is that his trade was glass blowing (obviously with a specialty in making barometers, altimeters, and thermometers). Perhaps we can stop the rising temperature on his scale by using a bit more glass where possible.