May 18, 2022·edited May 18, 2022Liked by Danny Sheridan
Nice one! I think it would be great to see the data of plastic metric tons increasing decade by decade since 1950 to 8.3 Billion and showing the forecast with the trend to reach 12 Billion by 2050 along with root cause and ways to reduce it.
This is interesting data, if you could follow up with links to articles about what can be done to reduce plastics, that would help readers determine actions that can be done.
thanks Danny! Possible followup could be interesting noting this company in the US that has started private recycling efforts for plastics especially: https://www.ridwell.com/transparency The website says so far they have deflected 5 million pounds (plastics, electronics, fabric etc) from landfills.
I am no chemist but isn't plastic made from petroleum? So when it's cited that plastic takes 400 years to degrade and the inference is that is a bad thing... why don't we also consider the oil that it was made from would probably still be around, in the ground, in 400 years? Making plastic converts a non-biodegradable substance, oil, into another non-biodegradable substance... it's a problem that we move the former from deep in the ground to surface locations where it can interact harmfully with wildlife etc. But if used plastic is re-buried in the ground in a similar state to that of petroleum, is it really the problem that many make it out to be? I mean, if it were oil still, it would still be in the ground and we don't complain that there are billions of gallons of oil in the ground...
Is there some goof-up in units? 8.3 billion metric tons of plastic has been produced since 1950 but 747 billion (not million?) tons has been recycled ?
Super important, thanks for sharing.
Nice one! I think it would be great to see the data of plastic metric tons increasing decade by decade since 1950 to 8.3 Billion and showing the forecast with the trend to reach 12 Billion by 2050 along with root cause and ways to reduce it.
This is interesting data, if you could follow up with links to articles about what can be done to reduce plastics, that would help readers determine actions that can be done.
thanks Danny! Possible followup could be interesting noting this company in the US that has started private recycling efforts for plastics especially: https://www.ridwell.com/transparency The website says so far they have deflected 5 million pounds (plastics, electronics, fabric etc) from landfills.
Would be great to understand if these are US numbers only and if yes, to compare e.g. with recycling rates in Europe
These are global numbers. Great idea to compare recycling by country!
I am no chemist but isn't plastic made from petroleum? So when it's cited that plastic takes 400 years to degrade and the inference is that is a bad thing... why don't we also consider the oil that it was made from would probably still be around, in the ground, in 400 years? Making plastic converts a non-biodegradable substance, oil, into another non-biodegradable substance... it's a problem that we move the former from deep in the ground to surface locations where it can interact harmfully with wildlife etc. But if used plastic is re-buried in the ground in a similar state to that of petroleum, is it really the problem that many make it out to be? I mean, if it were oil still, it would still be in the ground and we don't complain that there are billions of gallons of oil in the ground...
Is there some goof-up in units? 8.3 billion metric tons of plastic has been produced since 1950 but 747 billion (not million?) tons has been recycled ?
Updated the image and text on the website to reflect millions, thanks again for sharing that it looked odd!
Yes there is. The y-axis should be million, not billion.