Business Tycoons - Plastic Industry

The plastics industry is one of the most important industries as almost everything that is manufactured has plastic in it. And manufacturers prefer to use plastic as it is more durable than its alternatives.

However, no one can ignore the fact that plastic is a harmful product that is not biodegradable. A plastic straw takes more than 300 years to biodegrade! By this, we can only imagine the harmful impact it has on the environment.

Plastic is used in a variety of industries like packaging, building and construction, transportation, aerospace and many other industries. And since plastic has been used since a long time, the manufacturers did not try to find any other alternative that could replace plastic. Hence, plastic became such an important part of our lives.

Important Updates in Plastics Industry:

The global plastics market size stood at $568.9 billion in 2019 and is predicted to see a growth rate of 3.2% from 2020 to 2027. The reason behind the ever-increasing demand is the increased use of plastic in sectors like construction, automobile and electrical and electronics.

Also, to reduce the carbon emissions and to improve fuel efficiency, metals like aluminium and steel were replaced by plastic to produce automotive parts and other components. This resulted in even more demand for plastic.

However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the manufacturing units all across the world came to a complete halt. Hence, the current demand for plastic is low and will only pick up pace after the situation is back to normal.

During April 2019 and January 2020 plastic export reached $7.045 billion. The Indian plastics produces and exports a wide range of raw materials, polyester films, soft luggage items, writing instruments, consumer goods, sanitary fittings, fishnets, medical and surgical ware and many more of these items.

Government Initiatives:

Over the years, what seemed as a wonderful alternative to metals to avoid air pollution during production, turned into giving birth to a different kind of pollution: plastic pollution. When plastic products are not managed properly, these products accumulate in the environment, hence disrupting the natural habitat of wild creatures.

Plastic pollution has become one of the biggest problems in modern times as while the plastic products harm the environment, the economies across the world are struggling to find alternative solutions to plastic. The reason being the various industries didn’t think that they needed to find an alternative to plastic given how versatile plastic is and the numerous things that can be made with just one product.