Plastic Origins Summary

Gasoline Of all the oil refined for use in the United States, almost half (47%) becomes gasoline for automobiles, boats and other gasoline driven motors. Diesel Fuel & Another Home Heating Oil 20% becomes distillate, two-thirds of which is diesel fuel for trucks, buses and other diesel engines, and one-third home heating oil. Jet Fuel Airplanes consume 10%, in the form of jet fuel. Broiler Oil Boiler oil, or residual fuel oil, which makes up 7% of crude oil consumption, is used in ships, in industrial boilers and in power plants to produce electricity. Asphalt & Road Oil Asphalt and road oil account for 3% of crude oil consumption. Other Some of the oil, about 10%, is used as non-energy feedstocks for manufacturing products such as lubricants, wax, coke for steel making, and naphthas which are used in the dry-cleaning process. Petrochemical Feedstocks (Deritative, By-product) Petrochemical feedstocks, products of the refining process (by-product ot waste), make up the remaining 3% of all oil consumption. Half are used to make PLASTICS (1.5% of the total) for thousands of items such as tableware, furniture, aircraft and automobile parts, luggage, surfboards, helmets, medical supplies and packaging. The remaining 1.5% is used to make products such as solvents, synthetic fibers for wearing apparel, synthetic rubber, paints and coatings. Important Consideration Local bans on plastic packging will not save billions of gallons of oil as some environmental groups have claimed since plastic is produced by a derivative of the main channel for oil and natural gas, this derivative (by-product or waste) would still exist. In the past, the derivative was simply burned into the air as many U.S. refineries still practice. As more refineries build the infrastracture to turn waste into usable products, air quality will improve and help U.S. drive cost down and compete against foreign manufactured products. Command Packaging is one of the few U.S. manufacturers remaining with the standards and innovations that contribute positively to the environment and the U.S. economy. The environmental choice is re-usable plastic bags made in the USA, that you can and should recycle for our future. Click here to view complete picture story of the origins of plastic. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration and Exon Mobile