Plastics are a subset of materials known as Polymers. These are composed of large molecules formed by joining many smaller molecules together (monomers). Other kinds of polymers are fibres, elastomers, surface coating and biopolymers, such as cellulose, proteins and nucleic acids. Plastics owe their name to their ability to be shaped to form articles of practical value by various conversion and forming processes. These are some peculiar properties of plastics materials, which make them unique so that products can literally be tailor-made out of these materials.

In fact, plastics have permeated every facet of human life viz. agriculture and water consumption, buiilding construction, communication, small and bulk packaging, education, medicine, transportation, defence, consumer durables to name a few. One of the reasons for great popularity of plastics is due to tremendous range of properties exhibited by them because of their ease of processing. Hence, the demand for plastics has been increasing in modern living. Since last six decades, the Plastic Industry has grown world wide with present consumption of more than 130 MMTPA.

The Polymer/Plastic growth worldwide has been steady around 6% per annum which is much  higher than the GDP growth rate of 3.3%. The higher growth sectors or demand drivers for plastic consumption are consumer and bulk packaging, plasticulture, building construction, electrical and electronics, automotive, consumer goods, medical, telecommunication, furniture and household applications. The output value of commodity, engineering and high performance polymers was US$115 billion, accounting for about 7% of total chemical output value globally.

In India, however, the consumption of major plastics is only 3% of global consumption i.e. 4 million tons annually. This is very low as compared to global levels.

Plastics have a very strong correlation with economic growth. The Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) and NCAER have analyzed various industry sectors for the input-output matrix to study the effect of growth of various sectors  on GDP growth. Out of 115 sectors analyzed, the Plastic Resin and Synthetic Fibres sectors ranks a high 37. The importance of this sector can be gauged from the fact that one unit increase in the output value for the plastics sector reflects an increase of 2.38 units in the economy. Over the years the demand elasticity of polymer growth in comparison with GDP growth has been about 2.4  which is in line with the NCAER study.

The growth of Plastic consumption worldwide as well as in India is inevitable and desirable, because multiple advantages that these materials provide. some examples are given below as illustrations.

Plastics help improve quality of life: The Internet, globalisation, increased speed of communication, faster means of transportation, the advance of surgical medicine - all these would not be possible without plastics. Continuous technological innovation by the plastics industry means that even more efficient, lightweight and adaptable forms of plastics are being developed for an increasing range of uses. It is these advances that allow plastics to play an important role in the pursuit of sustainable development, by bringing innovative solutions to the full range of challenges facing society.

Preserve land, water and forest resources: Plastics have been provifing help to tackle the world's water distribution crisis, with affordable , easily constructed pipiing providing solutions to clean water shortages for 5.5 million people in Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Also the use of plastics drastically reduced the use of traditional usage of wood and other forest products thus resulting in reduction of deforestation.

Enable efficient use of non-renewable energy resources: It is estimated that the use of plastics as a whole actually saves more oil than is needed for their manufacture. At end-of-life, plastics can be a valuable alternative energy source in their own right. Plastics recycling continues to increase in world while energy recovery is a responsible use of our oil resources, diverting waste from landfill and helping to preserve fossil fuels. Tapping the sun and wind is already bringing clean and efficient energy to people world-wide and is greatly facilitated by the use of plastics that constitute major parts of the cells and turbines.

Possess a more favourable cost-benefit ratio : Continuous improvements in the material itself and recovery technologies mean that, in the future, packaging will become even lighter and more resource-efficient. The recently introduced Smart Card - largely made of plastics - is a sign of things to come.

Has a very versatile range of applications: Plastics have proved to have a wide range of applications in a large number of fields and their applications are increasing due to advantage of low cost, high durability and easy availability.

Plastics are treated as versatile materials since the properties of these materials can be tailored to meet specific demands by varying molecular weight, molecular weight distribution and side chain branching. Further making copolymers and polymer blends and alloys provide on mechanism for providing a synergism in properties and tailor making materials for specific applications.

Plastics, therefore, clearly form a material of choice in a large number of commercial applications. The demand of Plastics will be further driven by:

• Population growth and urbanisation
• Opening of rural markets
• Explosive Indian middle class
• Effective Media Network
• Increased Purchasing Power
• Higher Disposable Incomes
• Successful Marketing
• Brand Awareness
• Rising Aspirations