Global plastic consumption

Worldwide plastics consumption is of the order of 170 million tonnes annually in round figures, with a turnover of US 560 billion. Over the past five years, global plastics consumption has grown consistently by an average annual rate of 4%, comparable with steel and aluminium rates. 

Worldwide plastic growth is estimated between 4% and 5.5% per annum for the next few years, leading to a worldwide consumption estimated from 210 up to 260 million tonnes by 2010. 

Year Commodities (million tonnes) Total plastics (million tonnes) Annual growth rate (%) 

The market shares for the major families of plastics are estimated in Table 2.3 for industrialized countries however, other figures can be found in other sources according to the applications taken into account and the areas considered. 

For Western Europe, thermoplastics represent 79% of overall plastic consumption. Data for North America is perhaps higher. 

---

Table 2.1 and Figure 2.1 indicate the orders of magnitude of global plastics consumption. 

Plastic waste is becoming a serious global issue, thanks to extensive plastic usage all over the world, the treatment of waste plastic has gained the utmost importance. Scientists and experts all over the world are concerned over this major environmental problem which is expected to attain mammoth proportions by the year 2010, with an expected annual increase of global plastic consumption crossing the 5.5% mark. 

Polyurethanes represent approximately 6% of global plastic consumption, and 50% of the entire PU consumption occurs in North America and Europe. Roughly 30 /o of PUs are used for furniture and mattresses, 15 /o for vehicles, and 13%i for construction. In all of these applications, PU foams are used. In fact, over 80 /o of polyurethane applications use foam materials. Other forms of PU available include solid blocks, fibers, paints, adhesives, and coatings. 

Polyolefins are the largest volume, most versatile, most cost effective, industrial plastic resins available in the marketplace today. Together, polyethylene (HDPE, LLDPE, LDPE) and polypropylene represent about 60% of global plastic consumption. 

The burgeoning demand for plastics in threshold countries such as China, India and parts of South America, however, is likely to be a far greater contribution to global plastics consumption within the near future. Thus, even though plastics are likely to contribute to reduced resource consumption in the same way as they do in other regions, the global waste generation of a material that in many cases is considered difficult, if not impossible, to recycle economically is likely to increase dramatically. 

Plasticizers can also be classified according to chemical type. Table 24.3 provides an approximate distribution of global plasticizer consumption by chemical classifications. Phthalate esters continue to represent the major class of PVC plasticizers as they have done for almost 70 years however, their market share is declining. In the United States, with a long history of the usage of a variety of different plasticizers, the phthalate usage would be lower and may represent less than 70% of the market. With fewer plasticizer choices available in Asia, phthalate plasticizers make up about 80% of that market. 

Since the 1950s, the use of plastics for agriculture has been booming. Between 1990 and 1999, the worldwide consumption increased by 62% and by 185% since 1985, to reaeh a volume estimated at 2,850,000 tons (Jouet, 2003) in 2003. This consumption only represents 4% of the global plastic consumption. 

The rapid movement in the global phthalates market away from using plasticisers 2-ethylhexanol (2-EH) and diethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP) in favour of alternative products was underscored recently when BASF revealed plans to close its 2-EH and DEHP plants in Germany. The restructuring in Europe will have no effect on BASF s plasticiser portfolio in Nafta and Asia, however, where the company will continue to offer 2-EH and DEHP. About 70% of the plasticiser maiket volume is phthalates, and plasticisers make up about 60% of the plastic additives maiket. PVC accounts for 80-90% of global plasticiser consumption. In October 2003, California added DEHP to the state s list of more than 750 chemicals known to cause birth defects or reproductive harm. Previous studies had shown that the chemical can leach from plastic bags that contain intravenous fluids, blood, tube feedings or other medical treatment, and thereby enter the bodies of patients. 

BASF, a multinational chemicals industry leader, reported that plastics consumption grew from 86 million tons in 1990 to 174 million tons in 2003. At one time, BASF projected that plastics demand would grow further to 318 million tons in 2015. However, due to the global economic crisis of 2008-2009, the picture for plastics consumption worldwide changed significantly. Decreasing sales, plastics plant shutdowns and employee layoffs became commonplace. BASF, for example, reported reductions in its production in 2009, and shortened work hours were implemented for more than 4,000 employees early that year. By June 2009, BASF shortened hours for an additional 3,000 employees and planned to cut 2,000 jobs by the end of the year. 

The five engineering polymer families are polyamides (PA), thermoplastic polyesters (PEST), polycarbonates (PC), polyoxymethylenes (POM), and polyphenylene ethers (PPE). According to a March 2013 Industry Experts report entitled Engineering Plastics - A Global Market, 19.6 Mt of engineering plastics were produced in 2012. In other words, these polymers constitute only about 10 % by volume of all polymers produced. However, due to superior properties, they command a much larger percentage by value of the plastic consumption. 

The demand for foamed plastics is driven by the desire for (a) weight reduction, (b) improved thermal insulation and (c) lower part costs. The size of the global plastic foam market was estimated in 2002 as 6.8 M tonnes/year (of which the US share was approximately half), growing at 3% a year, with more rapid growth in insulating foam for the construction industry. Because of the obviously low density of foams, consumption expressed in terms of tonnage fails to convey the high volmne of product sold. 

As indicated in Chapter 1, global lead consumption from secondary sources approached four million tonnes per year in 2005, or 60 per cent of total world consumption. Around 20 per cent of world consumption is for uses where recycling is difficult, such as for plastics stabilisers, for TV tube glass, for shot and ammunition. Of the remainder, ten per cent is used for rolled or extruded alloys and cable sheathing, which have long-term applications, and 70 per cent is used for batteries. Recyclable lead therefore is predominantly from used automotive batteries, with some from reclaimed sheet, cable sheathing and other metallic scrap. In addition there are various residues, drosses and flue dusts containing lead. 

Under these conditions, regulations impose the use of materials possessing thermal stability as well as efficient fire retardant properties. In parallel, emissions of smoke must be low, not very opaque, not very toxic, and not very corrosive. This evolution toward greater safety seriously limits the use of many materials and involves the rejection of solutions largely used so far and, in particular, halogen-based flame retardants, on account of environmental concerns. Moreover, analysis of various statistics on plastic consumption (180 MT/yr, with a global annual growth rate of approximately 8%) shows the economic importance of this field and illustrates the world s industrial stake in it. 

Plastemart.com (2010) Global Polyethylene consumption in 2008 declined by almost 4%. http //www.plastemart.com/Plastic-Technical Article.asp LiteraturelD=1407 Paper= Global Polyethylene-consiunption-demand-2008-dedine-4percent... 

There are presently about 100 different plasticizers produced worldwide, although only about 50 of these are classified as commercially important. Of these 50 products, just 7 plasticizers comprise more than 80% of the global plasticizer market. Approximately 90% of all plasticizers are used in the production of plasticized or flexible PVC materials. For this reason, the majority of the information discussed in this chapter will focus on PVC plasticizers. Other polymer systems that use small amounts of plasticizers include poly (vinyl butyral) or PVB, acrylic polymers, poly(vinylidene chloride), nylon, polyolefins, polyurethanes, and certain fluoroplastics. The estimated worldwide production of plasticizers in 2014 was about 14 billion pounds [6] with the majority of the plasticizer consumption taking place in Asia Pacific, predominately China. About 75% of this volume is phthalate ester plasticizers. 

According to another study, in 2007, the global plastic additives industry grew to 12.2 million tonnes. This is justified by the rapidly growing Chinese plastics industry. Namely, China now accoimts for 28% of the worldwide additives consumption (32). 

Table 1.2, based on Modern Plastics sources, provides USA consumption figures (based on sales data) for the main groups of plastics materials. The figures probably underestimate the global importance of the major tonnage thermoplastics since these are also manufactured in quantity in developing countries and OPEC countries. 

In addition to polystyrene and high-impact polystyrene there are other important styrene-based plastics. Most important of these is ABS, with a global capacity of about 5 X 10 t.p.a. and production of about 3 X 10 t.p.a. The styrenic PPO materials reviewed in Chapter 21 have capaeity and production figures about one-tenth those for ABS. Data for the more specialised styrene-acrylonitrile copolymers are difficult to obtain but consumption estimates for Western Europe in the early 1990s were a little over 60000 t.p.a. 

In 1997 it was estimated that global production of PET was about 16.7 X 10 t.p.a., of which 12 million tonnes was used in textiles, 2 million tonnes for audio and video film (with a small quantity for technical mouldings) and 3 million tonnes for packaging, particularly bottles. The tremendous growth in the bottles market from zero in the late 1970s to 1.5 million tonnes in the USA alone in 1998 is, in consumption terms, one of the most spectacular examples of growth in plastics materials in recent times and will be considered later in this section. 

---