Prospects and problems of the use of polyethylene.

At one time, people received valuable substance- polyethylene. This polymer is widely used in everyday life and in industry. From an economic point of view, the production of polyethylene is a very profitable business. Almost all major petrochemical companies have such production. Such productions are offered for construction in many countries around the world. World demand for polyethylene until 2018 is growing at 4% per year and will reach 99.6 million tons per year.
It should be noted that polyethylene are not decomposed by microorganisms and practically not recycled naturally. The accumulation of these polymer leads to environmental pollution. Only 60-70 years have passed since the beginning of its industrial production polyethylene, and significant problems have already arisen with environmental pollution. In particular, polyethylene packaging materials and film cause great harm to the environment. We do not speak about the influence on the ecological situation of other polyethylene products. Piece recycling of polyethylene is a toxic and not profitable business. If you make plastic products from plastic bottles or films, this is not recycling. This is the replacement of one polyethylene products on other plastic product in substances that pollute the environment.
The question arises of what will happen when the time comes to recycling the hundreds of millions of tons of plastic products from polyethylene that have been received at the present time. What will happen to new enterprises, olefin plant that are used to produce polyethylene, when demand will for polyethylene falls?
Therefore, it is desirable to develop such polymeric materials, which over time, decomposed by microorganisms and did not bring harm to the environment. This is not a commercial a business. But it must be done. This requires financial costs and business support.
Industrial production associated with the production of polyethylene is desirable to limit, in order to the substances made from this polymer to pollute no the environment less.
To develop new technological processes the processing of hydrocarbons to obtain raw materials from which to synthesis new polymers, that could decompose naturally.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *