Plastics Plan Plastics Amorphous plastics and crystalline plastics Production Plastics

Production
9.2 billion tonnes of plastic are estimated to have been made between 1950 and 2017, with more than half this having been produced since 2004. Since the birth of the plastic industry in the 1950s, global production has increased enormously, reaching 400 million tonnes a year in 2021 up from 381 million metric tonnes in 2015 (excluding additives).^[2][23] From the 1950s rapid growth occurred in the use of plastics for packaging, in building and construction, and in other sectors.^[2] If global trends on plastic demand continue, it is estimated that by 2050 annual global plastic production will exceed 1.1 billion tonnes annually.^[2]

Plastics are produced in chemical plants by the polymerization of their starting materials (monomers); which are almost always petrochemical in nature. Such facilities are normally large and are visually similar to oil refineries, with sprawling pipework running throughout. The large size of these plants allows them to exploit economies of scale. Despite this, plastic production is not particularly monopolized, with about 100 companies accounting for 90% of global production.^[24] This includes a mixture of private and state-owned enterprises. Roughly half of all production takes place in East Asia, with China being the largest single producer. Major international producers include:

• 
  Dow Chemical
  
• 
  LyondellBasell
  
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  Exxonmobil
  
• 
  SABIC
  
• 
  BASF
  
• 
  Sibur
  
• 
  Shin-Etsu Chemical
  
• 
  Indorama Ventures
  
• 
  Sinopec
  
• 
  Braskem