Production of olefins and their derivatives uses almost 3.5% of the oil and gas consumed annually in the United States. It is estimated that their production requires an input energy of 2 Q, which is 50% of the energy used in the production of all petrochemicals. Substantial amounts of this energy could be recovered through recycling. For example, recycling of a single plastic product, polyester soft drink bottles, could have recovered about 0.014 Q in 1979. (About 1.4 Q is used to produce plastic derivatives of olefins). Petrochemical processes use fuels as feedstocks, as well as for process energy, and a portion of this energy is not foregone and can be recovered through combustion of the products. The energy foregone in the production of ethylene is estimated to be 7800 Btu/lb. The energy foregone in plastics production ranges from 12,100 Btu/lb for the new linear low-density polyethylene to 77,200 Btu/lb for nylon 66, which is about 60% of the total energy input for that product. Further investigation of the following areas could yield both material and energy savings in the olefins industry: (1) recycling of petrochemical products to recover energy in addition to that recoverable through combustion, (2) impact ofmore » feedstock substitution on utilization of available national resources, and (3) effective use of the heat embodied in process steam. This steam accounts for a major fraction of the industry's energy input.« less