Extended Data Fig. 10: Comparison of the global plastics-related carbon footprint in 2015 to the study of Zheng and Suh17, who applied bottom-up life-cycle analysis to assess the global plastics-related carbon footprint in 2015.
From: Growing environmental footprint of plastics driven by coal combustion
Comparison of the global plastics-related carbon footprint in 2015 to the study of Zheng and Suh17, who applied bottom-up life-cycle analysis to assess the global plastics-related carbon footprint in 2015. This study’s global carbon footprint of plastics production is 16% higher compared to Zheng and Suh17. The reason for this might be that the MRIO-based approach applied here accounts for the fuel-specific energy mix, such as the increased reliance on coal, while Zheng and Suh17 calculated with average global energy mixes. The study of Zheng and Suh17 further assumed that 24% of global plastics produced in 2015 were incinerated, releasing 96 Mt CO2-equivalents. This means that 400 Mt CO2-equivalents would have been released if all plastics were incinerated according to Zheng and Suh17, which is comparable to the 350 Mt CO2-equivalents calculated in this study.
