ABSTRACT
It was in 1862 that Alexander Parkes introduced the first man-made plastic at the London International exhibition [9]. The product was not a commercial success, though; it took another half century or so, and two world wars to see the age of plastic truly commence. Currently, the annual production of plastics is around 400 million metric tons [5] and seems to be growing faster than linear, if not exponentially (see Figure 15.1). It is expected to be close to 600 million metric tons by 2050 [6] [4]. As of the end of 2022, the global thermoset capacity is around 48 million metric tons [3].
