Does Using Plastic Help or Hurt Our Fight Against Climate Change?

Article

Does Using Plastic Help or Hurt Our Fight Against Climate Change?

| January 15, 2025

If we stop making plastic, would that help or hurt our fight against climate change?

It would hurt. Here’s why.

Plastic is typically more efficient than alternative materials.

Remember the famous line in the movie The Graduate? “Just one word… plastics.”

Well, let’s add just one more word. Efficiency.

Plastic is a group of modern materials that’s replacing legacy materials primarily for one reason: efficiency.

Lightweight yet strong plastic used in packaging and products is typically more efficient than alternative materials (e.g., glass, paper, aluminum and steel). How much more efficient? On average alternatives require roughly four times more material (by weight) to perform the same function as plastic.

Alternatives to plastic = four times more material

This efficiency pays off in reduced energy use and greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs). While studies vary a bit, lifecycle studies typically show that use of plastic in products and packaging results in approximately 2.5 times less GHGs than other common materials. Likewise, switching back to alternative materials would increase GHGs by 2.5 times.

Plastic = 2.5 times less GHGs

Plastic helps us do more with less:

Less material
Less energy required to ship products
Less greenhouse gas emissions

Modern, lightweight, efficient plastic is essential to our everyday lives… and our fight against climate change.

Here are the specifics…

Lifecycle studies

Based on decades of lifecycle analyses that study the environmental impacts of consumer goods, multiple researchers have concluded:

The use of plastic packaging and products can significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions compared to alternatives such as steel, paper, aluminum, glass, etc.
Replacing plastic with alternatives in many applications would significantly increase greenhouse gas emissions.

Click on the links below for more detail.

Is conventional wisdom wrong?

McKinsey & Company study

What have researchers found?

We need more than a climate week

Fact sheet on plastic & GHGs

Study: environmental costs of plastic, alternatives

Plastic production

Americans buy a lot of cars and trucks. And new homes. Plus solar panels, medical devices, packaged food, cell phones, clothes and other things.

All these products depend on a steady supply of plastic. So, it’s not surprising that plastic production went up between 2005 and 2017. What may be surprising is that GHGs from making plastic during this same time went down. A lot.

A 2022 report found that despite an increase in demand and supply of plastic, its environmental footprint actually shrunk, as measured by GHGs and energy use.

Click on the links below for more detail.

Wait… GHG emissions went down?

Fact sheet: environmental footprint shrinks

Study: a deceasing footprint

Our homes & buildings

Our homes and buildings use about 40% of our nation’s energy. Improving home/building energy efficiency is one of the easiest and most cost-effective ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and save money.

Using energy efficient modern building products – such as plastic house wrap and foam plastic insulation – helps dramatically reduce home/building energy needs.

As an example, a 2021 study found that if all U.S. single-family homes used plastic spray foam insulation, the reduction in GHGs would be equivalent to taking nearly 40 million cars off the road… each year!

Click on the links below for more detail.

Upgrading our nation’s infrastructure, insulation

Report: plastic use saves carbon

Plastic insulation: a comfortable return on investment

Fact sheet on plastic & GHGs

Advanced recycling

To help recycle the 90% of plastic that isn’t recycled today, billions of dollars in investments have been made in advanced plastic recycling technologies over the last few years. Multiple technologies can process hard-to-recycle plastics that can be remade into new plastic and products… again and again.

A review of 13 research studies found significant environmental benefits of using advanced recycling to make new plastic.

Reduced global warming potential
Reduced GHGs
Reduced fossil energy use

Click on the links below for more detail.

Fact sheet on advanced recycling research

Clearing the air on advanced recycling

Our protective packaging

Plastic packaging is strong yet lightweight. Lightweight plastic packaging typically delivers more food or drink per pound and per unit than alternatives made with other materials. That means more productivity for fewer pounds of material. In other words, plastic packaging is highly efficient, allowing us to do more with less.

Studies typically find that using alternatives to plastic packaging would increase GHGs by 2.5 times. Due
to reduced greenhouse gas emissions compared to alternatives, plastic packaging is playing a key role in
reducing our carbon footprint and combatting climate change.

In addition, plastic packaging helps reduce the massive GHGs associated with food waste.

Click on the links below for more detail.

What have researchers found?

More food on our plates, less in landfills

How environmentally damaging is food waste?

See what one plastic maker is doing to preventing food waste (video)

Study: plastic packaging is an efficient choice in terms of environmental impacts

Our cars & trucks

Carmakers are squeezing more miles out of a gallon of gas in part by replacing heavier materials with lighter weight plastic. Today’s cars on average are made of about 50% plastic by volume but only 10% by weight. Lighter weight = increased fuel efficiency, which cuts auto emissions, reduces our nation’s energy use and saves us money at the pump.

Studies demonstrate that lightweight plastic components help cut GHGs from our cars and trucks – use of heavier alternative materials would lead to significantly increased greenhouse gas emissions.

Click on the links below for more detail.

Study: plastic = more fuel efficient cars

Low carbon vehicles require plastic

What have researchers found?

Our solar energy

To achieve a lower carbon future for ourselves and our kids, we’re going to need lots of efficient, long-lasting solar energy capacity that drives down GHGs.

Photo voltaic cells in solar panels are enveloped in plastic to protect them from the elements. This protective plastic seals, bonds, and insulates. And it’s transparent and UV/temperature/corrosion resistant.

In addition, plastic contributes to essential electrical insulators, pipes, valves, and fittings needed to produce solar energy. And you can’t move electricity from solar panels (or any source) to our devices and appliances without electrical wire sheathed in plastic protection.

Click on the link below for more detail.

What does plastic have to do with solar energy?

Wind turbine blades

Modern wind turbine blades keep getting bigger and bigger – many are longer than a football field! They’ve got to be light enough to move with the wind plus strong enough to handle years of punishing rotation without twisting or gyrating.

So… What are these blades typically made of? Plastic. Actually, typically composite materials that enmesh plastic (polymers) with other materials (often fibers) to form an advanced matrix. Common fibers include glass to make fiberglass and carbon to make carbon fiber-reinforced plastic.

To expand wind power as a low-carbon energy source for our nation and drive down GHGs, we’re going to need a lot of these turbine blades.

Click on the link below for more detail.

What are those massive wind turbine blades made of?

Our water pipes

As we rebuild the resilience of our nation’s infrastructure, we need to focus resources on our crumbling water delivery systems. Hundreds of daily water main breaks in the United States result in expensive repairs that can tie up entire neighborhoods and clog traffic for weeks or months.

Durable plastic pipes are replacing traditional materials to move water to and from our homes and businesses.

Plastic pipes can help reduce GHG emissions over the lifecycle of a pipe network. As old-technology piping systems corrode, they require increasing amounts of energy to operate. Plastic pipes have smooth surfaces, which requires less energy to pump water through them.

Click on the links below for more detail.

It’s time to upgrade to plastic pipes

It’s time to retire America’s aging pipes

Yes, we can stop wasting so much energy (and water)

Plastic pipes deliver (more than water)

Unlocking savings with efficient pipes and pumps

A lesson from Alington National Cemetary

See what one plastic maker is doing to deliver clean drinking water

Plastic is typically more efficient than alternative materials.

This efficiency pays off in reduced energy use and greenhouse gas emissions.