Climate Basics Podcast Episode 12 notes

Plastics are created using waste products from the oil refining process.

Plastics started with widespread use starting after World War 2 (i.e. 1945 onwards) and increased their pace in the 1970s, as technological advances developed.

But what was a burgeoning industry spawning tens of millions of tonnes of plastics, annually, exploded as time went on.

By 2000, annual global plastics production was around 230 Mt (million metric tonnes).

By 2019, this had doubled, so that annual global plastics production was around 460 Mt.

This is a Tragedy of the Commons issue:

 * plastics are cheap and efficient, as a source product;

 * the problem created by plastics (i.e. they break into micro-plastics and go into our bloodstream) is slow and invisible;

 * the cost of change has not, yet, been solved - i.e. the alternatives to plastics are not yet at parity or cheaper, making change/switching a difficult proposition;

 * the scope of the problem is massive, leading to paralysis;

 * the cost of clean-up, the lack of individual accountability, make this problem very difficult to solve.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1hlziA5Trt9D1x_95pwIFo_-P9edwXtU2Rshdayy54-c/edit?usp=drive_link

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1xrkkUCgLDwBs4ILqauscx4BHYzjsecWni63hWW3_l_M/edit?usp=drive_link

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1bKqd5uyWWp0RYLVZlSd6F-UrOjMXo_H9nB3CtvA6jk8/edit?usp=sharing 

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