Is our reliance on Plastics making the energy problem worse?

Question

Is our reliance on Plastics making the energy problem worse?

Answer 1

No on two counts:

1.  Most plastics are produced from crude oil components that cannot be used for any other purpose.  Many of them were developed by researchers trying to figure out how to get rid of the gunk that's left over from the refining process.  As in interesting side note, in the late 19th century crude oil was used to produce kerosene and bunker (heating) oil.  The remaining waste product was called "gasoline" and it was considered completely worthless.

2.  When one considers the uses for plastics one realizes that it actually improves the energy situation in a number of ways.  Plastic components of vehicles, ships and aircraft reduce their weight so that they use less energy, plastic insulating materials reduce the energy used for heating and cooling, and it takes less energy in the manufacturing process to work with plastics than is needed to fabricate metal, stone or wood.

Answer 2

Yes.

Part of this gas crisis is the demand from China who uses oil to produce the majority of the plastics that we import.

Answer 3

Of course all those plastic bags and everything else made from oil

Answer 4

I think our reliance on fossil fuels will eventually make our plastics problem worse.

Plastics can be recycled, and they are arguably invaluable and nearly irreplaceable in modern health care.  Every time we burn a gallon of gas, those are petrochemicals that are gone from the resource stream for ever.  

I can get energy from the sun, the wind, moving water, even the very ground, but I can't get plastics from all those places.

Answer 5

Regardless of their impact on petroleum (we need to stop using petroleum as soon as we can), plastics are poisoning the environment.  They degrade to tiny particles that accumulate in the food chain in cumulative fashion until they reach toxic levels.  Drastic effects are showing up in the marine food chain already.  The effects are very similar to DDT.