An extract from a presentation made by Mr. Jitu Vadodaria at Ahmedabad on March 24, 2005 as a part of Jayvee Organics & Polymers Endowment Lecture for Indian Plastic Institute (IPI).

Additives are integral part of plastics and contribute to the success of plastics not only in processability but also in property modification as well as performance. Plastics would not have been able to deliver their performance without the addition of these chemicals known as "Polymer Additives". Although used at only about 5-7% in terms of weight or about 10% by cost, they provide immense benefits and have contributed to the success of plastics. Some scientists like to call them "Miracle Workers". The key contributions that are provided by these additives are tremendous. Some of them are:
Performance
Additives impart properties or enhance them when incorporated in plastics. Often these property modifications result into enhancing the performance of plastics. Some of the notable examples are:
· Plastic pipes without additives would not have been able to provide service life of 50 years.
· Windows/ doors would not be able to provide service for 15 years
· Plastic cable would not have been able to provide electrical properties at high temperature as well as tensions
· Plastic materials would not be able to withstand fire without these flame retardant additives

Processability
Plastics often have difficulty of processing. The processability of these plastics can only be successful with the aid of additives. Some examples are:
· Thin LLDPE film production
· Achieve fast packaging speed on plastic films like BOPP film
· Plastic-wood composites can not be produced effectively

The demand of plastic additives in India during 2004 was estimated at about 250 KT compared to 4.4 million tons of plastics.
Global demand of plastics additives in 2004 was about 9 million tons. The growth of additives is closely linked to the growth of plastics. However the conscious reduction of these additives for the purpose of environmental issues translates into slightly lower growth of additives. It is expected that the growth of additives would be between 3-4% compared to the overall growth of plastics at about 5 % in the next 5 years.

Plasticizers account for almost 60 % of the additives consumed by plastics. However their growth is likely to be at only about 1%. Due to increasing importance of plastics finding application in building and electronic industries, the fire retardant properties are becoming very essential for plastic products. Flame retardant additives therefore assume prime importance. Of the total additives used, almost 12% of these are used to impart the fire resistance in plastics.
PVC is the foremost plastic that consumes almost 65 % of these additives by weight. However their share is only about 40-45% by cost. PVC products are driven by the developments in additives and the method of incorporating them in PVC system known as "Compounding"

Plastic additives are undergoing some major metamorphosis because of several reasons primary being the environmental issues. Also the expiry of patents of these additives has resulted into larger number of new players in this field. The business of additives has become more competitive. There are more than 300 manufacturers of plastic additives in the World. Many of them are relatively smaller in size. No wonder the additives business has become very dynamic in the last decade. All these aspects will lead to the "Survival of fittest". The most critical aspect would be the availability of quality additives at the lowest possible cost.
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