Problem with Plastics - the costs of plastic production

The Problem With Plastics - the costs of plastic production

By Ray Gomez

Plastic production has increased because it is cheaper to make than other traditional resources like wood and metal. There are positives and negatives for manufacturing plastics. Plastic is used as water bottles, bags, chairs etc. However, it uses up our natural resources like crude oil. In this essay, I will explain how plastic is made and how much it costs to make it.

Crude oil is an essential for making plastic. Crude oil is a natural resources that is harvested using oil wells. To make plastic, crude oil goes into a process called refining where it separates the necessary things like propane, butane, methane, gasoline, kerosine, diesel, lubricating oil, tar, and asphalt from the unnecessary things. Interestingly, there are seven types of plastics. The common plastic we use is Polyethylene terephthalate or PET. These components are turned into pellets which can be melted and molded into bottles and plastic bags.

There are many costs involved in producing plastics. Significantly, a pound of new plastic pellets cost 80-85 cents while recycled plastic pellets cost 55-70 cents. The cost depends on the prices of oil and petroleum. Manufacturers prefer making new plastic pellets than recycling old plastic because they have to sort and clean them which can take time. As a result of all these new plastic, our efforts on trying to ban plastic bags is not making a very big impact. We should realise that what we have done so far is not enough.

Basically, plastic is easy to produce and convenient to use. As long as the price of crude oil doesn’t rise, plastic will be the cheapest material to use. Also, we still have an option to recycle plastic. Manufacturers should produce new plastic and recycle old ones so that old plastic doesn’t get dumped in our landfills.