Bio-Based Plastics Aim to Capture Carbon. But at What Cost?

Dec 15, 2022 7:00 AMGrowing crops to make plastic could theoretically reduce reliance on fossil fuels and even pull carbon out of the atmosphere, but at an enormous environmental cost.

Photograph: Juan Moyano/Getty Images

Humans have made huge progress in decarbonizing. It was thanks to the negligible price of solar and wind power that it was able to rise. The fossil fuel industry has tripled production from 2016 levels despite the World Economic Forum warning. Humans are making trillions of pounds of plastic a year, and in the process emitting over 600 coal-fired power plants. We will no longer use so much oil and gas as fuel in three decades.

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