Abstract
Polyethylene has come a long way since researchers at Imperial Chemical Industries in England made the first few grams of it 50 years ago. From something of a laboratory curiosity it has developed into a truly commodity product with global consumption running at about 40 billion lb annually. Its uses range from making toys, kitchen utensils, and packaging to sophisticated components of radar equipment and telephone cables. To mark polyethylene's golden jubilee, the Plastics & Rubber Institute of the U.K. organized a conference in London earlier this month. The seemingly insatiable demand for products made from the plastic prompted companies in increasing numbers to go into production. So much so, that the polymer has become something of a victim of its own success. This is particularly the case in Western Europe where demand more than doubled in the past decade from 5.5 billion lb in 1970 to about 12 billion ...
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