Quote:
Originally Posted by GGG
My thought was that the incremental energy required to produce plastic packaging is very low becuase it is effectively a waste stream from the oil and gas industry. So you already spent CO2 getting the product so only the incremental CO2 would be spent. I’m thinking CO2 intensity rather than other issues like micro plastics.
So if the cardboard is recycled I think it makes sense that cardboard is the right choice.
Is cardboard a waste stream from pulp and paper or do trees get harvested to produce cardboard?
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I'm not sure your assertion that plastic is made from waste is fully correct or at least genuine. While it is true that the feedstock for polyethylene and polypropylene, are ethane and propane respectively, and they are produced during the refining of fuels, to assert that plastics are made from a waste product is not quite genuine.
The bulk of plastics (polyethylene and polypropylene) are made from NGL feed stock that produced from wells that don't produce any fluid that would go near a refinery that was processing oil. That is, companies drill to produce high volumes of Ethane and Propane, they aren't really byproducts.
*edit* Naptha is also used for some types of plastic, so it's probably fair to say that some plastics are made from refinery waste, but not all.