ABSTRACT
The industrial use of plastics produced from non-renewable raw materials, especially in the fields of packaging and consumables including medical uses, is continuously increasing worldwide. Today, the United States is the largest producer and also one of the largest markets for thermoplastics. The growth in sales of the main commodity thermoplastics from 1997 to 2001 was 4.2% for packaging and 2.0% for consumer and institutional applications. The corresponding compound growth rate for the same thermoplastics across all applications was 3.0% over the same period.
