- Bioplastics — often promoted as a climate-friendly alternative to petroleum-based plastics — may lead to an increase in greenhouse gas emissions.
- An increased consumption of bioplastics in the following years is likely to generate increased greenhouse gas emissions from cropland expansion on a global scale.
- Plastics are usually made from petroleum, with the associated impacts in terms of fossil fuel depletion but also climate change.
- It is estimated that by 2050, plastics could already be responsible for 15% of the global CO2 emissions.
- Bioplastics, on the other hand, are in principle climate-neutral since they are based on renewable raw materials such as maize, wheat or sugar cane.
- These plants get the CO2 that they need from the air through their leaves, researchers said.
- Producing bioplastics therefore consumes CO2, which compensates for the amount that is later released at end-of-life. Overall, their net greenhouse gas balance is assumed to be zero.
- Bioplastics are thus often consumed as an environmentally friendly alternative.
- However, at least with the current level of technology, this issue is probably not as clear as often assumed.
- This could potentially lead to an increase in the conversion of forest areas to arable land.
- However, forests absorb considerably more CO2 than maize or sugar cane annually, if only because of their larger biomass.
- Experience with biofuels has shown that this effect is not a theoretical speculation.
- The increasing demand for the “green” energy sources has brought massive deforestation to some countries across the tropics.
