The Hidden Costs of a Plastic Planet: Climate

The document outlines how plastic contributes to greenhouse gas emissions across its entire lifecycle, from fossil fuel extraction to waste management, and proposes systemic reductions over technical fixes.

• Plastic production is heavily dependent on fossil fuels, with over 99% of plastic derived from them. Petrochemical production for plastics is the primary driver of growth in oil and gas demand, and annual plastic production is expected to be 40% higher by 2025 than it was in 2015, with disposable packaging accounting for more than 40% of that total.
• Greenhouse gas emissions occur at every stage of the plastic lifecycle: extraction and transport (via methane leakage and flaring), refining and manufacture (fuel combustion and chemical reactions), and environmental degradation (GHG release as plastics break down in oceans, rivers, or land). Microplastics may also hinder the ocean's carbon sequestration capacity.
• Cumulative greenhouse gas emissions from plastic could exceed 56 gigatons by 2050, which represents nearly 10% of the remaining carbon budget.
• Among waste management options, incineration has the highest climate impact, while landfilling has the lowest. Recycling has moderate emissions but helps by displacing the need for new plastics.
• The document argues that technical solutions such as ocean cleanups, downcycling, plastic-to-fuel schemes, and bio-based or biodegradable plastics are insufficient because they do not address the scale of production or the underlying reliance on fossil fuels.

APA

Center for International Environmental Law (2019). The Hidden Costs of a Plastic Planet: Climate. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/CIEL_2-pager_-The-Hidden-Costs-of-a-Plastic-Planet-Climate.pdf

Chicago

Center for International Environmental Law. The Hidden Costs of a Plastic Planet: Climate. 2019. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/CIEL_2-pager_-The-Hidden-Costs-of-a-Plastic-Planet-Climate.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Center for International Environmental Law |title=The Hidden Costs of a Plastic Planet: Climate |date=May 2019 |url=https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/CIEL_2-pager_-The-Hidden-Costs-of-a-Plastic-Planet-Climate.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{centerforinternationalenvironmentallaw2019hidden, author = {{Center for International Environmental Law}}, title = {{The Hidden Costs of a Plastic Planet: Climate}}, institution = {Center for International Environmental Law}, year = {2019}, month = may, url = {https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/CIEL_2-pager_-The-Hidden-Costs-of-a-Plastic-Planet-Climate.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }