Stephen Heins
Energy Consultant
“The Word Merchant”
…
The American plastics industry is booming thanks to the U.S. Shale Revolution and its abundant supply of ethane needed to make all things plastic.
Frankly, I think that more national reporters and environmental intellectuals should travel to see first hand North Dakota, Texas, Colorado, Pennsylvania, where the Bakken, the Permian, the Marcellus, Utica are powering the Shale Revolution. After all, the fracking done there is the best thing that has happened to American energy in a century: Natural gas, tight oil, feedstock for petrochemicals, liquid natural gas for the world.
In particular, feedstock is a primary ingredient in all things plastic. While many people think of plastics as an environmental nightmare, Simon Lack provides a great discussion showing many of the uses for feedstock made into thousands of product, not just garbage bags, straws, and cups.
One category missing is medical and health care for the world: There are several reasons for plastics global importance. First, there are the benefits from plastics: It can be sterile, hyper-allergenic, durable, versatile, cost-effective, antimicrobial, and non-permeable.
Modern medical science now uses plastics for surgical gloves, insulin pens, IV tubes, catheters, inflatable splits, disposable syringes, blood bags, new heart values, prosthetics, tamper proof caps, blister packs, modern pacemakers, stents, joint replacements, et al.
we need to move away from plastics and into alternatives like hemp.
plastics are polluting our environment and waterways, oceans…
And the Cracker Plants are polluting refineries/ processing plants and near homes like in western Pa. and give off noise and toxic emissions.
not good to live near.
I live near the cracker plant in Houston, Pa. and can tell you that your information is false.
Make consumers do their own chump-change work of recycling it, before dumping any more of it on the market cheaper than it already is.
Leading firm in San Francisco embraced the shunning of plastics/disposables with some interesting consequences …
A mesh hamper was emplaced to temporarily store cloth rags that were introduced in lieu of paper towels.
Stench from hamper ultimately prompted its removal.
Compostable trash bags were not only astronomically expensive – relative to plastic – They frequently broke/ripped causing chronic stinky, messy cleanups.
Banning of Styrofoam packaging led to expensive product deliveries as well as pricy food containers.
The compostable eating utensils were my favorite examples of this entire, insane rejection of hydrocarbons.
Rice, potato or corn products are put on trucks, trains, ships and sent overseas where they are put back on trains, trucks to arrive at processing plants. There, they are fashioned into one-time-use eating instruments.
Then, they are put back onto trucks, trains, ships and exported to the US. Upon arrival, they are placed onto trains, trucks, eventually getting to the end customer.
This is Saving the Planet?
Best part of all this … Know what these compostable products produce when they degrade in landfills?
Yep.
Methane!