ABSTRACT
Polymers represent the most abundant class of organic molecules of our bio sphere [1]. Complex polymers like coal and lignin occur in amounts of approxi mately 835,000 x 106 and 700,000 x 106 tonnes, respectively. These polymers rep resent the largest fractions, and they were formed in the past or synthesis is still going on, respectively. Furthermore, approximately 40,000 x 106 tonnes cellulose and 20,000 x 106 tonnes lignin are currently synthesized each year. In contrast to these figures, the production of approximately 100 x 106 tonnes per annum of various plastic materials is rather low. However, although only comparably small
amounts of plastics are produced, these materials are the source of rising problems since most of them are not used for long-lived materials but occur in waste, and communities in many countries have difficulty managing the problems resulting from continuously increasing amounts of plastic wastes.
