News Release: NREL Calculates Lost Value of Landfilled Plastic in U.S.
With mountains of plastic waste piling up in landfills and scientists estimating that there will be more plastics by weight than fish in the ocean by 2050, the growing environmental challenge presented to the world by plastics is well understood. What is less well understood by the scientific community is the lost energy opportunity. In short, plastic waste is also energy wasted.
Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) calculated the energy value of landfilled plastic waste in 2019 was enough to supply 5% of the power used by the country’s transportation sector, or 5.5% by the industrial sector.
