Q: How many gallons of crude oil are needed for one pound of plastic?
A: There are some really interesting facts that a European study generated related to plastics and petroleum usage: 3.7 billion pounds of plastics were used in Western European automobile production. It took 7.2 billion pounds of oil to make the plastic. It is estimated that 26 billion pounds of oil are saved each year through fuel efficiencies from lightweight plastic components - leading to a subsequent reduction in CO2 emissions of 66 billion pounds per year! The bottom line: Almost 4 times as much oil is saved each year than it takes to produce the plastics in the first place! And the energy value of plastics can still be used at the end of the auto's useful life.
