Nylon is ubiquitous.

It is arguably the most versatile synthetic material in the world and is used in all manner of consumer and industrial products. Your toothbrush is likely made out of nylon. So is your umbrella. So are the seatbelts in virtually any vehicle you ride in. It’s also likely that some of your clothing is made from nylon. But nylon’s versatility stretches far beyond the realm of everyday household goods. For example, the Kevlar in bullet-proof vests is a derivative of nylon. Even truly niche industrial materials, such as the specialized rods on the machinery that is used to pick the oranges that make the juice you drink for breakfast, are made from nylon. And this is the proverbial tip of the iceberg. Invented by Dupont in the 1930’s, this synthetic fiber is used in a literally uncountable number of physical goods.

We may not be consciously aware of it, but nylon is quite literally one of the foundations of modern society.

However, this alleged wonder material has a very real cost well beyond the realm of personal finance and macroeconomics. Nylon is a polymer; a plastic in layman’s terms. That means that in order to produce nylon you must first extract fossil materials (e.g. materials such as crude oil or natural gas, which are commonly referred to as “fossil fuels” but that are also the basic building block of all polymers).

Once that raw material has been extracted – a process which itself requires massive amounts of energy that is almost always derived from fossil fuels and produces a tremendous amount of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions – it must then be transported to a petrochemical refinery (note that the transport of crude oil and/or natural gas also requires copious amounts of energy that is typically derived from fossil fuels and results in GHG emissions) and then refined into the chemical precursors for nylon.

According to scientific literature, these steps represent roughly a quarter of all US greenhouse gas emissions.

As far as the actual chemistry involved, there are various methods used to produce the two chemical precursors to nylon; hexane-1,6-dicarboxylic acid (also known as adipic acid) and 1,6-diaminohexane (also known hexamethylenediamine). All of them are energy intensive, require a string of chemical transformations and result in large amounts of greenhouse gas emission. And as previously mentioned, all require petrochemicals that must be extracted and transported prior to refinement. For example, one of the petrochemicals that is used to produce nylon is called butadiene, and it is produced during a process known as steam cracking, which is primarily used to produce ethylene. And in case you’re curious, ethylene is the precursor to polyethylene; the most common plastic in the world.

So for those of you that are keeping score, the same refining process that creates the most common plastic in the world also helps produce one of the most ubiquitous man-made substances on earth; nylon. And as you may have guessed, the steam cracking process that is used to produce one of nylon’s primary chemical precursors – butadiene – requires mammoth amounts of energy and results in the emission of gargantuan amounts of greenhouse gas.

But there’s still much more to this particular cycle of consumption.

Earlier in this article there was mention of a substance known as adipic acid, which is derived from butadiene and is one of the two main precursors required to produce nylon. There is an industrial facility in Pensacola, Florida that produces this substance in industrial quantities. And according to the EPA Facility Level Greenhouse Gas Emissions Tool (or FLIGHT for short) this facility is a top 20 emitter of greenhouse gas nationwide and the No. 1 emitter in the nation if you don’t count electric power plants. The facility emitted a staggering 11.5 million metric tons of co2 in 2018 alone and nearly 10 million of those emissions were directly attributed to the production of adipic acid.

Eventually, this material is combined with other materials to produce nylon and that nylon is then shaped, sorted, and distributed throughout the world (mostly China) in order to manufacture both the consumer and industrial nylon products. These products are then placed in petrochemical-infused packaging of one sort or another so that they can then be placed in shipping containers and shipped in massive ocean vessels to destinations all over the world. Those shipping containers are then unloaded and the packaged nylon products are distributed to consumer end points via planes, trains, ships, trucks, and automobiles.

But there is even more to this story of consumption. While it is true that nylon is an extremely durable material that makes for extremely durable goods, eventually nylon products must be discarded. And in most of the world, including the United States, nylon waste eventually ends up in either a landfill or an incinerator, with both options producing copious amounts of greenhouse gas emissions.

Side Note: in the case clothing made out of nylon fabric, simply putting said clothing in your washing machine results in the leaching of nylon microfibers that eventually find their way into soil, air, drinking water, and bodies of water including the ocean.

So if you’re into keeping score and depending on how many of the chemical transformations you want to count as discrete steps in the overall process there are anywhere from a handful to a few dozen steps in the full cycle of consumption for nylon. You must extract fossil material and extract and/or synthesize various other raw materials. You must transport those materials to refineries. The materials must undergo multiple chemical transformations. Once the nylon material is finally produced it is sent to locations all over the world so that it can be manufactured into consumer and industrial goods. Those goods are then shipped to consumer end points all over the globe. And eventually, when the product is no longer fit for consumption, it is discarded and typically ends up in a landfill or incinerator.

The question that we must all ask ourselves is two-fold; is the ubiquity of nylon truly sustainable from a climate or ecological perspective? And if not, are we prepared to live in a much less convenient and consumer-centric world in exchange for preserving the environment for ourselves, our children and our children’s children?