Plastics are one of the most common materials around; from toys to food packaging, an insane variety of stuff is made from plastic. A downside to their versatility is their non-biodegradable nature, which is leading to plastic pollution; therefore, one of the most effective solutions to this problem remains recycling. As per the National Geographic Society, around 0.6 billion tons of plastic has been recycled till date. This sounds like a lot, but not when the total volume of plastic produced since the 1950s is taken into consideration — 9.2 billion tons!
Therefore, apart from promoting and mandating recycling, several biodegradable plastics are being developed, such as microcellular plastic. In such materials, bubbles, typically up to 50 micrometers in diameter, are formed by dissolving a gas in different types of polymers. Microcellular plastics have numerous positive attributes, such as selective light transmission and diffusion, sustainability, energy absorption, sound and thermal insulation, filtration, and tissue engineering scaffolding properties. Thus, with the increasing concerns related to pollution by plastics, the microcellular plastics market is witnessing robust growth around the world.
Transportation, healthcare, toys, food packaging, electronics, and construction are the various industries where these materials are finding expensive usage. Among these, their demand in the construction sector, where they are used to make scaffoldings, is expected to be quite high. With the government push for infrastructure development, the construction sector across the globe is advancing at a robust rate. PwC estimates the total output of the sector in 2030 at $15.5 trillion, which would be an increase of almost 85% from the present!
On a geographical basis, North America was the largest microcellular plastics market in the past, on account of the extensive research and development (R&D) being carried out in expanding the application area of such materials. In addition to this, the consumption of these materials in the transportation and food packaging industries of the region is also rising. The use of microcellular plastics is also high in Europe, which is majorly due to the high automotive production in the region.
Thus, as the problem of plastic pollution mounts, due to inadequate number of recycling and reprocessing facilities, the demand for microcellular plastics will keep surging around the world in the coming years.
