Why are fossil fuels bad?
Every day, we wake up, eat, get dressed, go somewhere, and use products and services to get by. But do you stop to think about the impact of our daily lives on the world around us? For example:
How are things made, and where are the materials sourced?
How do these things get transported to you?
How much waste do you (and those you buy from) produce and how much can you save?
Alternative options to buying or throwing away?
In most cases, these questions lead back to fossil fuels. They’re used to make stuff, and they’re burned to transport stuff. Our daily choices fuel the demand for this unsustainable raw material and energy source. After all, fossil fuels are the primary source of man-made CO2 emissions.
Because of this, we at Woola have a beef with fossil fuels and with single-use plastic packaging. After all, plastic is used to envelop almost everything: our food, water, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics. And most of the time it becomes trash after just one use, ending up in landfills or worse – in oceans or even inside our own bodies.
Bubble wrap is one of the big culprits, as there aren’t many sustainable alternatives that offer similar levels of protection. What’s more, it’s literally air bubbles trapped in plastic. It blows our minds that air is transported from one region to another to protect goods. And most often bubble wrap isn’t reused.
Plastic is a fossil fuel product. It’s made with petrochemicals. This means that the bubble-wrapped sunglasses or cosmetics you buy online directly impact the environment.
We asked ourselves whether there was a better way. Then we started Woola. Now we’re on a mission to completely replace bubble wrap with sustainable waste wool.
Do you want to join us in our beef with fossil fuels? Great! Let’s go through all the reasons fossil fuels are bad so you can join us in saying bye to plastic.
How fossil fuels are sourced
Let’s start at the source. Fossil fuels are deep in the Earth’s lithosphere (the rocky part of the outer layer or crust). Coal can be found quite close to the surface, while oils and gases (used to make petrochemicals and plastics) are mostly thousands of meters deep – like, Mariana Trench deep.
Let that sink in.
The amount of human and machine effort needed to drill this deep and extract the stuff is already noteworthy, as most of the mining machinery burns fossil fuels for energy (hydraulic mining shovels and loaders have diesel engines, while draglines are powered directly from the high-voltage electricity grid).
Mining involves unearthing, processing and moving underground fossil fuels. This, in turn, creates land degradation and can take a toll on landscapes and ecosystems.
The tops of mountains are blasted off.
Entire forests are removed.
Coral reefs are destroyed.
And toxic wastewater seeps into rivers and soil. Unfortunately, there isn’t much good that comes from mining from an ecological perspective.
Fossil fuels aren’t renewable
One key reason why fossil fuels are an unsustainable resource is that they are non-renewable. In simple terms, this means that their supply is limited and they will run out. Although fossil fuels are continually formed by natural processes, they take millions of years to form and known viable reserves are being depleted much faster than new ones are generated.
So, it’s not surprising that many countries are actively looking to switch to renewable energy sources like:
Solar
Wind
Hydro
Biogas
Biomass
Geothermal
Tidal
For example, Denmark reportedly generates 61% of its energy from wind and solar, while Germany is reportedly the global leader in biogas renewable energy. These top European economies’ efforts show a slow global shift away from fossil fuel energy.
Countries like the United States and China remain the biggest producers and consumers of fossil fuel-based energy in the world.
Fossil fuels are heating up the planet – polluting air, water and soil
Harmful materials get released into the environment at every stage of our reliance on fossil fuels – from production to consumption.
Air pollution: Fossil fuel combustion is burning a proverbial hole in our ozone, leading to planetary climate change. The combustion particles floating around are also making people, plants, and animals sick. In fact, most air pollution deaths are due to fossil fuel particulates and noxious gases, and it is estimated that this costs over 3% of global GDP (gross domestic product).
Water pollution: Ocean oil spills aren’t reported that much, but they’re still a very real problem leading to habitat loss. On land, Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) resulting from mining and drilling adds heavy metals and acids to our groundwater (yep, the water we drink and use for growing crops and watering our animals).
Soil pollution: AMD pollutes underground water but also seeps into the soil, leaving concentrated toxic mineral sediments in topsoil where most organic life happens.
Kills plants and animals: the increased presence of crude oil, AMD, and combustion particles in the environment is affecting biome health and decreasing biodiversity. It could take hundreds of years for full recovery.
Toxic to humans: breathing and ingesting fossil fuel residues is killing us. More and more studies are being done to understand the true impact.
They’re fueling the single-use plastic crisis
Besides the mineral toxicity of fossil fuel mining, fossil fuel products like plastics are pervasive and destructive. Microplastics are now found everywhere on Earth and inside organisms. New research also shows that microplastics actually stunt photosynthesis, leading to less plant growth and more greenhouse gases (GHGs).
Plastic could take millennia to fully decompose or biodegrade. We’re saying “could” because all plastic ever made still exists – we’re not even really sure if it can completely deteriorate.
Many plastics have already been broken down into smaller pieces – even up to microscopic level – but this degradation has become part of the problem. Microplastics are becoming the foul coating of post-industrial revolution life.
Because plastic is a “free” by-product of making gasoline, people do not value the material. In fact, more than 40 percent of plastic is used only once before it is thrown away. This has led to a plastic pollution crisis that we need to end.
The ecommerce fashion industry in particular, is a major contributor to plastic pollution, being the third most polluting industry in the world and adding 10% of the global anthropogenic carbon footprint.
Terms like “fast fashion” have emerged to describe this phenomenon of extreme overproduction, overconsumption, and waste turnover. Plastic makes it all possible because it’s fast and cheap to manufacture high quantities of synthetic fabrics and packaging.
How fossil fuel products are handled and disposed of
This brings us to disposal: many (if not most) fossil fuel products are intended for single use, and it’s incredibly difficult to get rid of them safely. Many entities – from governments to individual consumers – are aware of and concerned about sustainability, but a lot of brands use greenwashing techniques to hide unsustainable practices.
Till exempel:
Displaying meaningless eco badges.
Saying their plastics are 100% recycled when in fact only a small percentage truly is.
Claiming that their products are recyclable or biodegradable when they aren’t entirely.
Shipping ‘eco-friendly’ or ‘green’ products in unsustainable packaging like bubble wrap. These terms are synonymous with greenwashing, which is why we don’t use them!
Using vague and meaningless keywords like “natural” and “toxic-free” to trigger positive, “good-for-the-environment” emotions.
The fact is people feel less bad about throwing away a product that claims to be biodegradable or recyclable, and most of the time, it simply isn’t. And just like the video in the LinkedIn post above, our waste travels far away to become someone else’s problem.
Ever heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch? It’s a gigantic swirl of plastics in the Pacific Ocean, three times the size of France.
Fossil fuel product waste is everyone’s problem. Single-use products have demand baked in and keep the fossil fuel industry going. And the more we waste, the more climate change accelerates.
They fuel geopolitical power & war
Fossil fuel drives socioeconomic life and influences GDP. The power lies with those who have the oil because, currently, almost all industries will be disrupted or cease if there’s no crude oil. Oil prices determine food and other resource prices. Coal availability determines the price of electricity. And without electricity, even your local fish & chips shop won’t be able to keep going.
If you take a step back and look at the countries involved in war in the past 50 years, you may agree that access to fossil fuel resources still plays a significant role in political alliances and war efforts.
At Woola, we don’t do business with companies based in countries such as Russia and Saudi Arabia, which are in the thick of fossil fuel wars or that primarily rely on this industry for their wealth and power.
Top primary energy producers 2025 - Image source: EIA
How can we do better?
Considering just how much humanity depends on fossil fuels, it may seem near-impossible to get rid of fossil fuels (and plastics) completely. But considering all the reasons mentioned above, there’s simply no other choice. We have to move away from fossil fuels, and the sooner the better.
Everything we produce has an impact – so there will be no perfect alternative to all our uses of fossil fuels. But there are better options out there, free of fossil fuels – like our wool packaging solutions.
Our mission is linked to a commitment to lowering global carbon emissions and ultimately keeping our planet liveable for a long time. To date, Woola has replaced 200,000 m2 of bubble wrap – that’s 18,000 kilograms of plastic that didn’t end up in landfills or water bodies!
