If oil is a limited resource and plastic comes from oil,how are we not facing a plastic shortage?
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Plastic is made from ethylene gas, which is made from ethane gas, which is a byproduct of petroleum refining, and is also is the second most common component of natural gas, after methane. So it’s an abundant byproduct of various hydrocarbons, and gets used in much smaller quantities, in total, than the hydrocarbons we use for fuel. A gallon of plastic is a **LOT** of plastic. A gallon of gas will get your car to drive from 20 to 60 miles, depending on the model of the car.
This is also why plastic recycling struggles with profitability issues: The chemical feedstock to make new plastic is just too inexpensive. You can buy a gallon of ethane at a ethane distribution facility for $0.30 per gallon. You’ll pay more for the pressurized tank you’ll store it in.
Oil isn’t limited or scarce. Like most “valuable” things (diamonds), the oil scarcity is fabricated to drive up the price.
Oil is a limited resource that wont be scarce for centuries but the way we obtain oil would change. And plastic although is a product in the refining process of oil, the sheer amout of oil that is refined is magnanimous for plastic to face shortage.
We can make hydrocarbons [synthetically](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212982021000548), we will never run out.
The procedure for making plastics is complex – the cost of the feed gas isn’t a major part of the cost.
The feed gas is cheap – in many places, it isn’t worth collecting it and cleaning it, and it is just burnt off in the refinery’s (or well’s) flare stack. In this instance, and making it into plastic could be an environmental positive!
Just fyi we were facing a major plastic shortage throughout 2nd half of 2020 and first half of 2021. Still a fantastic question and I really enjoyed the answers above
There isn’t an oil shortage. We know where a lot is and there is even more that we know exists, but which is technologically difficult to access while maintaining high profit levels. The technology will progress and make those areas more affordability accessible over time. Our choice to use less oil isn’t about scarcity as much as it is about environmental impact and the moral issues around consumption of a finite resource when practically infinite options exist.
The problem with plastic isn’t really about impact on oil consumption as much as it is about pollution. As a species, we are not good about putting used plastic back into an industrial cycle or into a safe long term storage location. So, plastic is invading places where it does widespread harm – like our food chain and water supply.
So, use less plastic where practical and dispose of plastic in responsible ways.
There is no such thing as a limited resource in a market economy. It just gets more expensive.
For other reasons listed here, and also because we aren’t burning it en-masse. Supplies of things last a lot longer, and stretch a lot further, when you not literally burning millions of gallons of it daily just to get people to work. You probably burn 2-8 pounds of gasoline just to do an average daily commute, but how often do you buy 8 pounds of plastic? That water bottle is on the order of single digit grams, consumer products almost always use less than a pound of plastic (usually on the order of a couple ounces).
You might say the same about water supplies. Why is drinking water cheap and abundant despite water shortages? It’s because the vast majority of water we use goes to agriculture and industry, and if all our water were represented by a single glass, we humans would like like ants taking negligible sips from it from a global perspective.
Among other things, it’s simply a matter of scale. A single drop looks like a wild shortage to a human, but an endless wellspring to an ant.
Oil is a limited resource *as fuel*. But it’s not a limited resource as far as plastic is concerned. You can fill your kitchen with unnecessary plastic objects that you will use (or not) for years, on a barrel of oil. But that same barrel will only fill your gas tank once, and you’ll use it up in a week.
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