This has resulted in one of the raw materials used to produce plastic resin – natural gas liquids – dropping dramatically in price. “I can summarise [the boom in plastics facilities] in two words,” Kevin Swift, chief economist at the ACC, told the Guardian. “Shale gas.”He added: “There has been a revolution in the US with the shale gas technologies, with the fracking, the horizontal drilling. The cost of our raw material base has gone down by roughly two thirds.”The findings come amid growing concern about the scale of plastics pollution around the world. He said he was deeply troubled by the expansion in plastic production.

Source: The Guardian December 26, 2017 07:02 UTC