Why the U.S. Plastics Industry Loves the Fracking Boom

[KoKo]

Why the U.S. Plastics Industry Loves the Fracking Boom
Looking for another reason to worry about fracking? We're going to bubble-wrap the entire planet with the overabundance of plastic it produces.
by Susan Freinkel

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2014/05/12-3

I used to keep a running list of stupid plastic products and gimmicks I had seen or heard about. Like the gizmo that somebody invented to aid in the task of cutting a hot dog into 12 identically-sized pieces. Or disposable Holy Communion cups that come pre-filled with wine, their tops sealed with peel-away foil. Or—my personal favorite—Del Monte’s plastic-wrapped, single-serve banana, which, as Jon Stewart has pointed out, is apparently a product for “people who love bananas, but hate their biodegradability.”

All of these ridiculously unnecessary products testify to just how addicted we’ve become to the presence of throwaway plastics in our everyday lives. Yet weaning ourselves from them may soon be harder than it’s ever been—thanks to the recent boom in shale gas, of all things.

The shale gas boom has been a game-changer for the plastics industry.Twenty years ago, domestic producers of natural gas couldn’t find enough reserves to justify the expenses associated with drilling. Today, thanks in large part to fracking, we’re experiencing a natural-gas bonanza. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, new developments in drilling and extraction technology have opened the door for the capture of more than 2,000 trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas—enough to take us, at current rates of consumption, into the 22nd century.

In addition to potential health concerns, most of the talk about the shale gas boom so far has focused on what it will or won’t do for America’s energy needs. But an important side conversation is now taking place among companies that rely on this fossil fuel for other purposes. Natural gas contains many of the vital raw materials that are used to manufacture plastics and chemicals. The new tide of cheap natural gas has launched the petrochemical industry on the biggest building spree it has seen in many years, with many experts predicting enormous increases in production of those plastics most often used in consumer packaging and single-use products.

The shale boom, in other words, has been a game-changer for the plastics industry. Just a few years ago, domestic gas prices were so high that U.S. companies were struggling to compete against producers in Asia and the Middle East, and were shutting down or shrinking their plants. Nowadays the United States is one of the cheapest places in the world to make plastic, according to Joseph Chang, global editor of ICIS Chemical Business. The petrochemical industry is ecstatic.

“This is the first time in more than a decade we’ve been able to talk about building facilities [and] increasing capacity,” says Steve Russell, vice president of the plastics department of the American Chemistry Council, which represents many of the world’s biggest producers of raw plastics and recently produced a report analyzing the impact of the shale gas boom. To date, companies under its aegis have announced plans to spend more than $100 billion by 2020 to build new facilities or expand existing ones.

Most of the proposed projects are focused on extracting ethylene from the ethane contained in natural gas. Ethylene is one of the most widely used chemicals in the world—a key raw material for ammonia, antifreeze, vinyl, and rubber. But more than anything else it’s used to make polyethylene: the plastic found in toys and diapers, plastic bags and bubble wrap, milk jugs and squeeze bottles. It’s the chief plastic found in most consumer packaging. Not surprisingly, it’s also the type of plastic most often found floating in ocean garbage patches, thousands of miles from land.

It takes gigantic furnaces known as crackers to break down ethane molecules into ethylene. The last time a new cracker was built in the U.S. was 2001. Now at least ten new crackers are slated for construction over the next several years—including a $6 billion plant that Chevron Phillips began building in Baytown, Texas, earlier this month. The building boom extends from the industry’s traditional home, along Texas’s and Louisiana’s Gulf coast, to parts of Appalachia and western Pennsylvania that sit atop the ethane-rich Marcellus Shale. Royal Dutch Shell, just to cite one example, has proposed locating an ethane cracker in Monaca, Pennsylvania, not far from Pittsburgh.

More about exporting plastics to other countries...at:

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2014/05/12-3

[NYC_SKP]

1. Education is the key. And, we all need to be the teachers. Share this short clip with all you know.

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As I tell younger people when talking about packaging, this is instant trash: You just bought, literally, garbage.

And, for every can full of garbage you accumulate, there are 17 more cans full that were created in the production stream.

Please share with your friends, especially younger people or folks with kids, this very entertaining and accessible "Story of Stuff":

Oh, and please also check out "Story of Citizens United", "Story of Electronics", "Story of Change", and others at http://storyofstuff.org/