Published: 02 December 2021
Nature Sustainability
Livia Cabernard, Stephan Pfister, Christopher Oberschelp & Stefanie Hellweg

Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Zürich, Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering, Institute of Environmental Engineering, Ecological Systems Design, Zürich, Switzerland
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Zürich, Department of Humanities, Social and Political Sciences, Institute of Science, Technology and Policy (ISTP), Zürich, Switzerland

Table of Contents

Abstract

• We show that the carbon and particulate-matter-related health footprint of plastics has doubled since 1995, due mainly to growth in plastics production in coal-based economies.
• Plastics-related carbon footprints of China’s transportation, Indonesia’s electronics industry and India’s construction sector have increased more than 50-fold since 1995.
• In 2015, plastics caused 4.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Methods

• Method about how to avoid double-accounting is detailed in another paper¹.
• With this method, fossil resource extraction, GHG emissions, PM health impacts and socioeconomic impacts(value added and workforce)

Results

Fig. 1: Global value-chain analysis of the carbon footprint (GHG emissions) of global plastics production in 2015.

The sectors where GHG emissions are released (a); the processes that release GHG emissions, that is, combustion (88%) and non-combustion (7%) processes of fossil fuels (left side: 95% in total) and other processes (right side: 5 % in total): biogenic emissions (2.7%), hydrofluorocarbon emissions (1.7%) and cement production (0.8%) (b); the regions where GHG emissions are released (production perspective) (c); the regions where plastics are finally used (consumption perspective) (d); and the end products or sectors where plastics are finally used: plastics packaging material is allocated to the end product or sector where it is used (for example, food packaging in the food sector) (e).

• Plastics products directly used by households 20%, service 18%, electronics and machinery 14%, construction 14%, Automotive industry 14%, Food 6%, Textiles and furniture 7% and other end use 7%.
• GHG released by resin production and upstream chain sectors: resin production and manufacturing into plastics products (direct emissions)41%, electricity generation 32%, other sectors in the upstream chain 17%, fossil fuels extraction process 10%.

Fig. 2: Value-chain analysis of the fossil resource footprint of global plastics production, including the extraction of fossil resources used as a fuel and feedstock for plastics production.

The fossil resource footprint of global plastics production in 2015 (540 Mt in 2015, 100%): type of extracted fossil resource (a); region where fossil resources are extracted (b); region where fossil resources are used for plastics production (as fuel or feedstock) (c); region where plastics are consumed (d).

Fig. 3: Plastics-related carbon footprints of nations and the role of imports in 1995 and 2015.

a, Change in the per capita carbon footprints of plastics from a consumption perspective. b, Change in the fraction of the carbon footprint of plastics induced abroad due to imports plotted against the GDP and grouped by income67 from 1995 to 2015 (as single data points for these two years). The carbon footprints of plastics shown in this figure allocate the GHG emissions to the region where the plastics were finally used (consumption perspective). Net traded GHG emissions of plastics (production-based minus consumption-based GHG emissions) are shown in Extended Data Fig. 3.