Plastics have become an intergral part of our daily lifes. It influences our wellbeing and shapes our livestyles as well as our work and sparetime. Our Eco system is threatened by our lifestyles and it has become apparent that we need to set find a way to continue to better our lives and at the same time lessen the impact of that on the environment.
In the past few years we have witnessed a large movement towards environmental awareness and natural resource management. The manufacture and use of plastics has a relative low affect on pollution and is a good use of natural resources. Enviromental focus groups have seen to that manufacturers of plastics and plastic products, expecially packaging, have kept their vigilance. Considerable amount of effort and money have been spent on development towards cleaner production and use of less raw material. With new technology and materials we have seen a proportional decrease in use of raw materials in the past years. Plastics have long since shown themselves to be competitive and have established a well earned place in various fields of use. But plastics have also made other materials redundant and made processing and manufacturing easier and more economical as well as more environmentally friendly.