ABSTRACT
The global demand for plastics has consistently increased in the recent years and presently stands at about 135 million tons annually. It was back in mid-1980s that the world production of plastics exceeded that of steel. For a material with a short history of about half a century of commercial use, this is a major achievement that illustrates the versatility and the cost-effectiveness of plastics in a myriad of applications. Interestingly, the world demand for plastics has increased linearly with the population, allowing the estimation of the resin production in year 2010, when the global population is expected to level off, to be about 165 million metric tons per year. The consumption of plastics in various applications is not uniform in all parts of the world. There is a wide disparity in the per capita consumption of plastics in affluent countries, such as Japan or the United States, and developing countries, such as India or China. The differences reflect mainly those in the lifestyles in the respective countries. The more affluent nations rely on disposable single-use plastic packaging more extensively, and use more plastic building materials in construction. The exceptional mechanical properties and the weatherability of adequately stabilized formulations and the low cost of plastics, compared with competing materials, have resulted in rapid growth of plastics' use even in the developing world. Even a small change in per capita consumption in a populous country, such as China, can amount to very large changes in the absolute volume of resin demand annually.
