I don’t know if that source ultimately took into account the CO2 costs in extraction and transportation.
However, plastic sure isn’t free in that regard! 8-10% of petroleum (which is pulled out of the ground, with increasing effort each year) is used to produce plastics. I’d put good odds on extraction and transportation CO2 costs for petroleum exceeding those for LNG - no good guess on coal. That also doesn’t account for your energy costs in moving the post-consumer plastic around.
Plus, natural gas has significantly lower emissions than plastic to begin with.
Obviously, which others touched on, it’s better to displace burning fossil fuels and plastics (arguably fossil fuel too) with renewables —- an effort that continues to accelerate.
The point is that it's free once it gets to the recycling stage. You could just dump the plastic in a landfill, or you can use it for energy.
Basically the efficiency comes from using the plastic twice, but paying for it only once.
> Plus, natural gas has significantly lower emissions than plastic to begin with.
Well the question is this then: Are we burning any oil at all for electricity? If zero oil in the entire US, then you can make this point. Until then, lets replace that oil with plastic.
As for your renewable comment, this is intended as something to do today, to at least help. Over time it won't be needed, and that's fine, but let's work on today.
However, plastic sure isn’t free in that regard! 8-10% of petroleum (which is pulled out of the ground, with increasing effort each year) is used to produce plastics. I’d put good odds on extraction and transportation CO2 costs for petroleum exceeding those for LNG - no good guess on coal. That also doesn’t account for your energy costs in moving the post-consumer plastic around.
Plus, natural gas has significantly lower emissions than plastic to begin with.
Obviously, which others touched on, it’s better to displace burning fossil fuels and plastics (arguably fossil fuel too) with renewables —- an effort that continues to accelerate.