I’ve often wondered how big of a drain plastics put on oil supplies. I’ve done many searches for a breakdown of where oil is used. Today I found part of my answer: 4% of oil goes to producing plastics. 88% of all oil goes into fuel and the other 12% into other products (like plastic).

Another interesting tidbit is that only 40% of total energy needs in the US are met by oil. I had assumed it was higher.

Also interesting – Germany ran out of oil in WW2 and started producing it from coal. It was much more expensive, though, so not a sustainable solution.

It’s fun to read Wikipedia and follow links that take you to something totally new and unexpected.

Plastic on Wikipedia

Petroleum on Wikipedia