How Big Oil Misled the Public into Believing Plastic Would Be Recycled

Re:How Big Oil Misled the Public into Believing Plastic Woul... by gerbler on Saturday September 12, 2020 @02:51AM (#24450438)

There were some life-cycle analyses done which created quite a stir arguing that plastic was better when the full life-cycle was considered. I can't find the original paper but here's a summary [1] of studies with sources (from a bag website)

1: http://www.allaboutbags.ca/papervplasticstudies.html.

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Re:How Big Oil Misled the Public into Believing Plastic Woul... by sudasana on Saturday September 12, 2020 @03:03AM (#24450488)

Not sure if a site compiled by the Canadian Plastics Industry Association is a great source here. Even though it cites sources, there's probbaly some strong selection bias going on here.

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Re:How Big Oil Misled the Public into Believing Plastic Woul... by gerbler on Sunday September 13, 2020 @02:05AM (#24458766)

I missed it was from a plastics association. But my point about the life-cycle analysis work is still valid - I studied this a little in grad-school and the paper v plastic bag trade-off was frequently discussed because of the surprising results.

(Life-cycle analysis does have huge assumptions involving usage, so it's not an exact science)

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Re:How Big Oil Misled the Public into Believing Plastic Woul... by curyous on Monday September 14, 2020 @02:02AM (#24467256)

I'm not sure life-cycle analysis is that useful in this case.

If a paper bag requires more energy to produce, it could still be better for the environment as it doesn't stay around polluting the world forever.

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