Plastic Production, Use, Disposal, and Leakage, in the US, 2017

 

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Image retrieved from: Heller, Martin C., Michael Mazor, and Gregory A. Keoleian. (2020) Plastics in the US: Toward a Material Flow Characterization of Production, Markets and End of Life. Environmental Research Letters 15(9): 1-14. Note that the difference in mass between production (left side) and end-of-life (right side) in this 2017 snapshot represents a net addition to in-use stock. There is a notable fraction of plastic materials with 'undefined' use due to unavailable data on use markets for lower-volume polymer types, thermosets, and imports of primary form resins and formed plastics.
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ab9e1e

Data Sources for Diagram: 

  1. American Chemistry Council 2019 Resin Review: the Annual Statistical Report of the North American Plastics Industry 
  2. PET Resin Association 2015 PET by the Numbers (available at: http://www.petresin.org/news_PETbythenumbers.asp
  3. 2019 Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene (ABS) Market Share, Size & Trend Analysis Report (sample) Grand View Research (available at: https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene-market
  4. 2017 American Chemistry Council 2018 The Economic Benefits of the U.S. Polyurethanes Industry (available at: https://polyurethane.americanchemistry.com/Resources-and-Document-Library/Economic-Benefits-of-Polyurethane-Full-Report.pdf
  5. American Chemistry Council 2019 Guide to the Business of Chemistry (available at: https://www.americanchemistry.com/GBC2019.pdf
  6. Plastics Insight 2019 Polycarbonate Properties, Production, Price, Market and Uses (available at: https://www.plasticsinsight.com/resin-intelligence/resin-prices/polycarbonate/
  7. United States International Trade Commission 2019 Trade data (available at: https://dataweb.usitc.gov
  8. United States International Trade Commission 2019 Trade data (available at: https://dataweb.usitc.gov; Trucost 2016 Plastics and Sustainability: a Valuation of Environmental Benefits, Costs and Opportunities for Continuous Improvement
  9. United States International Trade Commission 2019 Trade data (available at: https://dataweb.usitc.gov; 
  10. Placeholder for currently unavailable data
  11. NAPCOR 2018 Postconsumer PET Container Recycling Activity in 2017 (National Association for PET Container Resources (NAPCOR) and The Association of Plastic Recyclers)
  12. Based on information from US EPA
  13. Townsend T G and Anshassi M 2017 Benefits of Construction and Demolition Debris Recycling in the United States (Construction & Demolition Recycling Association)
  14. Jody B J, Daniels E J, Duranceau C M, Pomykala J A and Spangenberger J S 2010 End-of-Life Vehicle Recycling: State of the Art of Resource Recovery from Shredder Residue (Argonne National Laboratory), American Chemistry Council 2018 Plastics and Polymer Composites in Light Vehicles (available at: https://chemical.report/whitepapers/plastics-and-polymer-composites-in-light-vehicles/3446
  15. US EPA 2019 Advancing Sustainable Materials Management: 2016 and 2017 Tables and Figures
  16. United States International Trade Commission 2019 Trade data (available at: https://dataweb.usitc.gov
  17. Ryberg M W, Laurent A and Hauschild M 2018 Mapping of global plastics value chain and plastics losses to the environment (with a particular focus on marine environment) (Kenya: United Nations Environment Programme Nairobi)