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Growing environmental footprint of plastics driven by coal combustion
Open accessAbstract
Research on the environmental impacts from the global value chain of plastics has typically focused on the disposal phase, considered most harmful to the environment and human health. However, the production of plastics is also responsible for substantial environmental, health and socioeconomic impacts. We show that the carbon and particulate-matter-related health footprint of plastics has doubled since 1995, due mainly to growth in plastics production in coal-based economies. Coal-based emissions have quadrupled since 1995, causing almost half of the plastics-related carbon and particulate-matter-related health footprint in 2015. Plastics-related carbon footprints of China’s transportation, Indonesia’s electronics industry and India’s construction sector have increased more than 50-fold since 1995. In 2015, plastics caused 4.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Moreover, 6% of global coal electricity is used for plastics production. The European Union and the United States have increasingly consumed plastics produced in coal-based economies. In 2015, 85% of the workforce required for plastics consumed by the European Union and the United States was employed abroad, but 80% of the related value added was generated domestically. As high-income regions have outsourced the energy-intensive steps of plastics production to coal-based economies, renewable energy investments throughout the plastics value chain are critical for sustainable production and consumption of plastics.
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“Our results are in line with previous studies 38,39 and demonstrate that in 2022 little progress has been made to reduce the reliance of fossil-fuel feedstocks for plastic production.”
From Complexities of the global plastics supply chain revealed in a trade-linked material flow analysis (2025) · cites this paper as [38]
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Metadata
- Authors
- Cabernard, L., Pfister, S., Oberschelp, C., & Hellweg, S.
- Affiliations
- ETH Zurich (CH)
- Corresponding author
- Cabernard, Livia
- Venue
- Nature Sustainability
- Published
- 2021-12-02
- Volume
- 5
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 139-148
- ISSN
- 2398-9629 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4200043500
- Cited by
- 458
- References
- 51
- Citations by year
- 2026: 78 · 2025: 107 · 2024: 125 · 2023: 96 · 2022: 51 · 2021: 1
- FWCI
- 22.09
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Locations
- Nature Sustainability (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Repository for Publications and Research Data (ETH Zurich) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- ETH Zürich Research Collection (cc-by)
- Funders
- Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Engineering › Environmental Impact and Sustainability
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Energy, Environment, Economic Growth
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Pollution › Microplastics and Plastic Pollution
- Keywords
- plastic production, coal combustion, environmental footprint, carbon footprint, particulate matter, greenhouse gas emissions, global value chains, plastic consumption, renewable energy investment, health effects, China, Indonesia, India
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