Automobile manufacturers are shifting from conventional materials to soft-touch thermoplastic elastomers (TPEs), which impart a luxurious feel and an aesthetically appealing appearance to various interior car structures. The fastest growing soft-touch TPE applications are instrument panel skins, seat backs, door trim, arm rests, handles, knobs and airbag doors. For details on TPE applications and materials, read Automotive sector is increasingly replacing commodity plastics with thermoplastic elastomers

PVC is one of the most versatile plastics, though it has lost its premier position to PP in the 90's. PVC has almost 20% share of the global plastic consumption (30 million tons out of the total of 165 million tons in 2003). PVC has possibly the widest range of processing techniques compared to all other polymers. Read further in PVC: What you should know about it

A research team has developed a process to use CO2 as an alternative building block for polymers. Instead of being pumped into the atmosphere as a waste product, CO2 could be isolated for use in producing plastics along with oranges. Read further in Can oranges provide polymers?

An interesting presentation has been made on rotomolding of nylon 6 parts directly from caprolactam monomer. The process is said to be faster than molding with nylon 6 and reportedly makes superior parts, free of surface porosity alternative. Read more in In situ polymerization of Polyamide 6 for roto molded parts