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The Correlation Between Plastic and Climate Change
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This review chapter explores the underappreciated connection between plastic pollution and climate change, showing that plastics contribute greenhouse gases throughout their lifecycle. The plastic crisis and climate crisis are intertwined problems that need coordinated solutions.
While biodiversity and ecosystem degradation are often the focus of plastic-related research, the contribution of plastic to the cumulative climate-relevant trace gases is often unrecognized. As such, the plastic crisis is much less commonly viewed as a contributor to climate change. This chapter primarily explores the lifecycle impacts of plastics on cumulative greenhouse gas emissions. It then investigates the cyclical nature of plastic pollution and extreme weather events. The chapter also illustrates, in brief, the impacts of plastic pollutants on the largest carbon sinks on earth and investigates the adverse effects on global food supplies. It then discusses landfill emission contributions and other land-related complications as they relate to plastic. Plastic pollution is a significant driver of marine biodiversity loss and so are the impacts of climate change. Microplastics (MPs) have also been identified as an emerging threat to much larger organisms, like whales that are exposed to MP ingestion as a result of their filter-feeding activity.
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Plastics and climate change: an overview of two connected global problems
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Researchers reviewed the interconnections between global plastic production and climate change, finding that plastics' lifecycle emissions—concentrated in early production stages—and ocean plastic pollution together account for significant greenhouse gas contributions, and that meaningful solutions require treating the two crises as one integrated problem rather than separately.
Climate Change and Plastic Pollution: A Review of Their Connections
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This review explores the interconnections between climate change and plastic pollution, showing that the two crises influence each other through mechanisms including plastic production from fossil fuels, photodegradation of plastics accelerated by warming, and microplastics affecting atmospheric processes.
Understanding the Relationship between Plastic Waste and Climate Change with the Need to Move towards Sustainable Plastic Waste Management
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This review connects plastic waste to climate change, arguing that plastic production, use, and disposal all contribute significantly to greenhouse gas emissions. Burning plastic waste releases CO2 and toxic chemicals, while plastic pollution in ecosystems further disrupts carbon cycles. The author calls for urgent shifts toward sustainable plastic alternatives and circular economy approaches.
Plastic Pollution and Climate Change: Double Trouble
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This accessible review explains how plastics and climate change reinforce each other — plastic production emits greenhouse gases, warming accelerates microplastic release from the environment, and microplastics themselves disrupt ecosystems that regulate climate — calling for integrated policy solutions.
Emerging Challenges from Plastics-Driven Climate Change
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This review examines how the plastic life cycle — from fossil fuel extraction through manufacturing to disposal — generates substantial greenhouse gas emissions, while environmental microplastics disrupt ecosystems and reduce ocean carbon sequestration, creating a bidirectional link between plastic pollution and climate change.
Research digests by email
When a large batch of papers lands in the Atlas, we read through it and send a short write-up of what stood out.