As the migration to shared transportation, EVs and greater fuel efficiency all weigh on fossil fuel demand, oil companies are planning to convert more crude oil into petrochemicals like acetylene, benzene, ethane, ethylene, methane, propane, and hydrogen, which form the basis for thousands of other products, including plastics. See: Fossil fuel industry sees future in hard-to-recycle plastic:
Cheap plastic is made using chemicals produced in the process of making fuel. Petroleum refining transforms crude oil extracted from the ground into gasoline, producing ethane as a byproduct. A decade ago, the advent of fracking – hydraulic fracturing of oil or natural gas – made the raw materials for plastics significantly cheaper.
Fracking shale gas produces lots of ethane, which is turned into ethylene – the building block for many hard-to-recycle plastic products, like packaging films, sachets and bottles. Cheap polyethylene from fracking created a glut of plastic packaging on supermarket shelves that sociologist Rebecca Altman has called “frackaging”.
With land and waterways already choking in toxic non-biodegradable plastics, however, the plan to produce even more is a no go, as plastic bans spread.
WATCH: Beginning Jan. 1, Mexico City banned the use of single-use plastic, ushering in 2020 with a return to the days of 1960s packaging – paper bags, sacks and baskets https://t.co/847Set148G pic.twitter.com/CJLNLrRQmo
— Reuters (@Reuters) January 14, 2020
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