With gas prices rising, there's lots of talk about how to be more efficient with the car. There's car pooling. There's doing errands in a strategized way (no more zig-zagging around town). Some are taking the bus to work, and yesterday I saw a neighbor rolling a shiny new wheelie cart of groceries home from the store. These are all great things, but Big Oil impacts our daily lives much more than in our gas tanks. According to Rankin Energy, one 42-gallon barrel of oil creates 19.4 gallons of gasoline. The rest of that barrel goes into making other products - Rankin estimates there are over 6000 items using oil in their manufacturing.
Here's a partial list of products with petroleum as an ingredient (this is only a small sample):
nylon zippers
ballet tights
plastic hangers
pantyhose
permanent press clothing
flip flops/thongs
fake fur
polyester clothing
ball point pens
ink
computer diskettes
computers
copiers
magic markers
telephones
microfilm
cameras
earphones
footballs
knitting needles
tennis racquets
golf balls
baby aspirin
stuffed animals
band aids
Vaseline
rubbing alcohol
Pepto-Bismol
hair coloring
soap
cough syrup
hair spray
lipstick
denture adhesives
trash bags
egg cartons
freezer bags
candles
wax paper
nylon spatulas
Teflon pans
Formica
linoleum
garden hoses
plungers
floor wax
Plexiglas
spray paint
Anti-freeze
balloons
dog toys
flea collars
CDROMs
check book covers
shopping bags
video cassettes
credit cards
dice
watch bands
Sources: Illinois Department of Natural Resources; Rankin Energy
See also: 16 CFR 1700 (February 16, 1997)(OnlineDOCID:fr26fe97-25)(Consumer Product Safety Commission, Proposed RuleMaking: Household Products Containing Petroleum Distillates and Other
Hydrocarbons)
