- Historic growth in global virgin plastic production
- The Rise of China and the New Global Industrial Center of Gravity
- Competition between virgin and recycled plastic in international markets
- Generated plastic waste: accumulation dynamics and short life cycles
- Global collection and structural limits of interception systems
- Gap between potential and actual recycling in different regions of the world
- The European and American recycling markets: regulations, quality of flows and competitive tensions
- India and emerging markets: consumption growth and new critical issues in the supply chain
Global production, generated waste and regional dynamics: how the global plastic recycling system is really evolving
Essay. Post-Consumer Plastic Recycling. Chapter 4: Global Recycling Numbers. Geographies, Markets and Imbalances in the Plastic Value Chain
Observing the numbers of global virgin plastic production means reading, in filigree, the trajectory of economic development over the last seventy years. Thermoplastic polymers have become the material language of globalisation: they accompany the growth of consumption, mark the evolution of industrial value chains and represent one of the most sensitive indicators of socio-technological transformation. Understanding the logic that governs these volumes is not only useful for quantifying the waste problem, but for deciphering the balance of power between regions, production sectors and development models.
Global production of virgin plastic has gone through several historical phases, each characterised by a different balance between demand, technology and availability of raw materials.
From the 1950s to the early 2000s, growth was almost exponential: an expansion driven by the progressive penetration of plastics into an ever wider range of sectors — from packaging to automotive, from construction to electronics, from medical devices to agriculture — and by the ability of petrochemical industries to develop polymers that were increasingly versatile, inexpensive and competitive compared with traditional materials. This dynamic was reinforced by the initial absence of environmental constraints: virgin polymers were considered inexhaustible resources, and their production cost, linked to oil, followed for decades a cycle that favoured their expansion......© Reproduction Prohibited
