About plastic

The total value of manufactured products in the world petrochemical industry is estimated at 3.2$ trillion. The dependence of all industries on petrochemical products as well as the high diversity of products in this industry has made the countries of the world have a special focus on this sector

Hydrocarbons, like oil and gas, after passing through different layers of the value chain, are transformed into various polymeric and chemical products, which are capable of producing thousands of final products used by industries and communities. Polymer and chemical products are used in the production process of many types of equipment, materials, and consumer goods of human societies. One of the most important uses of polymers is plastic.

 

Plastics is the term commonly used to describe a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic materials that are used in a huge and growing range of applications. Everywhere you look, you will find plastics. We use plastic products to help make our lives cleaner, easier, safer and more enjoyable. We find plastics in the clothes we wear, the houses we live in, and the cars we travel in. The toys we play with, the screens we watch, the IT tools we use and medical equipment we benefit from all contain plastics.

Plastics are extremely versatile materials and are ideal for a wide range of consumer and industrial applications. The relatively low density of most plastics gives plastic products the advantages of light weight. And, although most have excellent thermal and electrical insulation properties, some plastics can be made to conduct electricity when required. They are corrosion resistant to many substances which attack other materials, making them durable and suitable for use in harsh environments. Some are transparent, making optical devices possible. They can easily be moulded into complex shapes, allowing other materials to be integrated into plastic products, and making them ideal for a wide range of functions. Furthermore, if the physical properties of a given plastic do not quite meet the specified requirements, its balance of properties can be modified with the addition of reinforcing fillers, colours, foaming agents, flame retardants, plasticisers, etc., to meet the demands of the specific application.In principle, plastics can be developed with virtually any combination of properties to accommodate almost any application you can think of.

Plastic Packaging

 

Building & Construction

 

Mobility &Transport

 

Electrical and Electronic

 

Agriculture

 

Health care & Medical

 

Sport & Leisures

 

Energy

 

Plastics are a material of choice in packaging applications because of their performance, cost effectiveness, and durability. To be useful, packaging must safely protect and deliver a product from the manufacturer to the consumer. Packaging must meet regulatory requirements. For example, pharmaceutical and drug packaging is tightly regulated, as well as any plastics packaging that comes into contact with foods.

  • Food & Beverage Packaging

One area in which plastics make a major contribution is food packaging. Around 1.3 billion tons of food is wasted every year around the world. Plastics, and particularly plastic packaging, offer an ideal solution to help combat this waste. They provide numerous resource-efficient options to deliver food of the highest quality and with maximum shelf-life to consumers in portion sizes adapted to modern lifestyles. This significantly reduces food waste, energy consumption and the resources used.

From airtight wraps to shelf stable bottles and containers, plastic packaging plays a key role in delivering a safe food supply from farm to table and is a material of choice for freezing foods for longer term storage.

Many plastics, such as polystyrene and polyethylene, have been used in food packaging for decades.

  • Healthcare & Pharmaceutical Packaging

Highly valued for adaptability, protective properties, and cost-effectiveness, plastics are uniquely suited to meet the stringent standards and requirements of the medical and healthcare packaging industry. Plastics enable innovations that help protect healthcare products from damage, keep ingredients safe, and guard against contamination.

Plastic packaging can be found throughout the healthcare environment, including thermoformed blister packs and trays, as well as caps, bottles, vials, pouches and overwrap. Plastics are the workhorse at the heart of medical packaging solutions that must meet the medical and pharmaceutical industry’s rigorous compliance requirements.

Plastics are the perfect materials for shipping and storing intricate devices, drugs, and other medical instruments. Whether they’re essential medical supplies such as IV bags and syringes or lifesaving medical devices such as incubators and dialysis machines, plastics help improve health and save lives around the world.

  • Personal Care & Cosmetic Packaging

Few sectors value beauty, design, and function as much as the cosmetic packaging industry. From high-end luxury cosmetics to everyday personal care products, plastics play a major role in delivering products to market.

For personal care products, plastics are a material of choice for manufacturing shatterproof and “no-spill” bottles, jars, tubs, caps, and closures. Flexible pouches and tubes allow for improved product evacuation, which can reduce waste while maintaining visibility. Plastics also enable innovations like compact and portable packaging, which is a growing consumer trend.

  • Household & Chemical Packaging

From multi-layer films to help protect fertilizer, soil, and seed, to thermoformed rigid tubs of premixed concrete, gardening pots, and containers, plastics are behind many durable home and garden packaging solutions. Brand owners rely on plastics for their protective properties and adaptability.

The building and construction sector in Europe consumes around 10 million tonnes of plastics each year (20% of total European plastics consumption), making it the second largest application for plastics after packaging. Plastic pipes, for instance, account for the majority of all new pipe installations, with well over 50% of the annual tonnage. And this share continues to grow.

Some of these plastics main uses in the construction industry are : Cladding panels, Cables, Pipes and gutters,Windows and doors, Shuttering, Wall linings, Floor covering, Ceiling panels, Roof coverings, Sinks, basins, baths, and showers, Worktops Insulation materials, Membranes.

  • Flooring

Plastic materials like polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and polyethylene are used to make flooring less prone to wear and tear. It also decreases the sound pollution level and can be cleaned easily.

  • Roofing

To protect the outer surface of the roof from damage, two layers of different plastic materials are required. The upper part is made of colored thermoplastic olefin or vinyl while the lower part consists of polyurethane foam which consumes less energy and keeps the interior of a house cooler.

  • Pipes

Commonly made up of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), CPVC, acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) or polyethylene, plastic pipes are flexible and very light in weight, making them easy to install.  All of these plastic materials are also highly chemical and water resistant, making them suitable for many extreme environments.

Mobility &Transport

In the automotive industry, plastics allow for energy absorption, weight reduction and innovative design, while contributing to passenger safety. Features such as shock absorption for bumpers, suppression of explosion risks in fuel tanks, seat belts, airbags and other life-saving accessories such as durable plastic safety seats to protect young passengers make plastics the safest material for automotive applications.

Plastic materials are used for a wide variety of transportation applications. Thermoplastics offer a number of advantages over metals, wood, and fiberglass including outstanding aesthetics, durability, and sound insulating properties. Plastics are also extremely lightweight, which contributes to improved fuel economy.

Transportation applications where plastics have been successfully used

Bezels, Cargo carriers, Cabinets, Driver Partitions, Exit signs, Golf cart windshields, Headliners, Instrument panels, Interior wall panels, Light diffusers, Luggage bins, Modesty panels, Rain and insect deflectors, Seating, Spare tire covers, Storage containers, Truck bed liners, Vehicle glazing, Wear pads,Window shrouds.

 

Agriculture

Plastic and agriculture have become so closely intertwined that the term “plasticulture” is often used to refer to the many uses of plastic in the industry. From greenhouses to feed silage, you’d be hard pressed to find an aspect of agriculture that doesn’t benefit from the use of farm plastic in some way. However, there are specific kinds of agricultural plastic that are better for certain applications than others.

For years, the growing use of plastics in agriculture has helped farmers increase crop production, improve food quality and reduce the ecological footprint of their activity. Not only do plastics allow for vegetables and fruits to be grown whatever the season, but these products are usually of better quality than those grown in an open field.

A wide range of plastics are used in agriculture, including, polyolefins (polyethylenes (PE), Polypropylene (PP), Ethylene-Vinyl Accetate Copolymer (EVA)) and less frequently, Poly-vinyl chloride (PVC), Polycarbonate (PC) and poly-methyl-methacrylate (PMMA).

These plastics provide

Innovative and sustainable solutions: Thanks to the use of different plastics in agriculture, water can be saved, temperature can be maintained under the covers during the night, photoselectivity can improve certain flowers production and crops can even be planted in deserted areas. Plastic irrigation pipes prevent waste of water and nutrients, rain water can be retained in reservoirs built with plastics, and the use of pesticides can be reduced by keeping crops in a closed space such as a greenhouse or, for mulching, under a plastic film. Moreover, the emissions of pesticides in the atmosphere will be reduced as they will remain fixed on the plastic cover. Pest control plays a vital role in safeguarding crop yields.

Electrical and Electronic

Electricity powers almost every aspect of our lives, at home and in our jobs, at work and at play. Plastics Market offer a wide range of favourable attributes that enable them to be utilized in design and development of various electronics & electrical appliances. Plastics are inseparable and the fundamental material used for manufacture of electrical appliance components.

And everywhere that we find electricity, we also find plastics. In the kitchen, there are the labour-saving devices that we wouldn’t be without; washing machines, microwave ovens, kettles.

In the living room is the television, the video or the music system, while at work, we may use a computer. a fax machine or a telephone. Plastics make progress possible, making electrical goods safer, lighter, more attractive, quieter. more environmentally friendly and more durable.

 

Sport & Leisures

 Plastics are an indispensable part of the sports and leisure industry. Few other materials are capable of meeting the various requirements in sports and leisure so flexibly. Therefore plastics are increasingly replacing traditional materials such as wood.

Plastics have revolutionised sports in recent years. From the tracks on which Olympic athletes pursue new records to the shoes, clothing and safety equipment they wear and the stadia they perform in, ballgames,  modern sports rely on plastics. In addition to delivering the performance characteristics that modern athletes demand, plastics also provide sustainability benefits.

The mouldability of composite plastics enables sleek dynamic hulls to be produced that are low in weight and high in strength. Power cruisers, sailing yachts and almost every other vessel now has a hull, deck, superstructure and even a mast made of composites.

For more than 50 years, the world’s toymakers have been using plastics to make some of the best known and most popular toys, sports and leisure goods for children. From bicycle helmets and flotation devices to knee protectors and other protective sporting gear, plastics help children to have fun and keep safe every day. Like all plastics, these materials are thoroughly tested, well-researched, durable, flexible and cost-efficient.

Health care & Medical

Plastic is one of the most commonly used material in the medical industry. It is the most essential part of the modern medical industry and without the use of plastic materials, the modern healthcare would not be possible. The most innovative procedures in the medical industry, involves the use of plastic. The involvement of plastic in the modern healthcare industry had gradually increased over the last decade and today it is largely used for different purposes in the medical industry.Plastics have been used widely to create medical tools and devices like surgical gloves, syringes, insulin pens, IV tubes, catheters, inflatable splits, etc. Such products are created for one-time use and help prevent the spread of dangerous diseases by eliminating the need to sterilize and re-use a device.

Plastic is also being used to create special antimicrobial touch surfaces that can repeal bacteria and other microbes, thus reducing the spread of dangerous diseases.

  Plastics have reduced the weight of eyeglass frames and lenses.  They are key components of modern prosthetic devices offering greater flexibility, comfort and mobility.  Plastics allow artificial hip and knees to provide smooth working, trouble free joints.

Energy

Plastic materials contribute to the health of the planet, helping to reduce the environmental footprint of energy production.

In buildings, plastics provide effective insulation from cold and heat and prevent air leakages.Wind turbines’ rotor blades and photovoltaic panels contain large amounts of plastics, helping to achieve the efficient production of renewable energy.

Solar panels already use plastics to protect or connect some of its parts. Now plastic-based solar cells are expected to enter the market in the not-to-distant future.