rebeccahitchings wrote:Hi,
I'm doing a project at university on polymers and I was hoping as a bit of an introduction into the importance of polymers to quote how much polymer is produced worldwide each year. I've hunted on the internet but can't seem to find a figure. Does any one here know of a rough value I can quote?
Thanks for any help you can give,
Rebecca Hitchings
Hi Rebecca,
The major plastic resins are polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polystyrene (PS), and polyethylene terephthalate (PET). PE resins include HDPE, LDPE, and LLDPE or high density, low density, and linear low density PE. Each plastic resin family (PE, PVC, PP...) contains many different grades of material, variations in flow, strength, target process or application, and clarity have been developed to address specific uses.
There are also less important resins (compared to their lower production volume, only and certainly none the less important commercially) like nylon, polycarbonate, urethane, and on and on! But the big "movers and shakers" are PE, PP, PVC, PS, and PET.
The web site for the Society of Plastics Industry (SPI)
http://www.plasticsdatasource.org/globa ... 164summary might give you a starting point. They show some figures on world wide plastics usage, about 116.5 million tons in 2000, for example. Many of the detailed surveys and summaries are not free and will cost you a good bit of money to access. I'd certainly think, however, that data for
past years (2000 to 2002) should be available
free!
But, what you're looking for is a break out of annual volumes by plastic resin type. So, this may take some digging.
Good luck,
Len
