Additives in the Plastics Industry

Abstract

To obtain a picture of environmental and health impacts related to plastics additives, data are required with respect to the production and use of plastics and of their additives, to emissions of additives in all life cycle stages, and to the impacts resulting from those emissions. Statistics on plastics production, trade, and sales are available. Statistical data on plastics waste are scarce – waste trade data are available but most probably do not cover all relevant flows, plastics waste generation data are available only for the EU, and plastics waste treatment data are mostly absent. For the production and use of additives, reports from market analysts provide relevant and usable information. With regard to emissions to the environment, Life Cycle Inventory data are available for plastics production, but these do not include additives. Additive production data are scarce. It is, therefore, not possible to obtain a picture of plastics-related emissions of additives to the environment. For the use and waste treatment processes, LCI data with relevance for plastics additives are not available at all. Life Cycle Impact Assessment data are available for a number of additives, and could be supplied relatively easily for others. The most important data gaps, therefore, occur in the emissions data and in the data related to waste generation and waste treatment.