Environmental Issues Related to the Plastics Industry Global Concerns

ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES RELATED TO THE PLASTICS INDUSTRY GLOBAL CONCERNS 

Environmental issues of today are conveniently discussed within two broad classes global issues and regional or local issues. Table 1.2 summarizes the various issues in each category that impact the polymer industry. The following discussion examines each of these environmental concerns in an effort to understand the extent to which the plastics industry potentially contributes to it. Serious environmental problems that do not involve the polymer industry directly, such as the loss of biodiversity or the increase in urban population density, are excluded from the present discussion. 

In Plastics The Making of a Synthetic Century by Stephan FeniceU, Harper Business (1996), the author makes the incredible statement plastics owe its bad rap and its bad rep to the undeniable fact that so many of its most fundamental applications are so chintzy and sleazy.  

San Francisco Bay Guardian, 02-28-1996, Epicenter The Plastics Inevitable, by Leighton Klein ... so producing plastic requires the constant extraction of oil, coal, and natural gas. Repairing anything made of plastic is nearly impossible, and the notion of recychng it is a robust fallacy at best.  

Depletion of fossil-fuel energy and raw-material resources 

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