In the past two years the consumption of common in the developed countries world wide (high tonnage) polymers for packaging has approached a value of 50 wt.%. In the same period more than 50% of the packaging units on the world market were made of polymeric materials despite the fact that polymeric materials present 17 wt.% of all packaging materials. The basic properties of polymeric materials and their environmental and economical advantages, providing them such a position among packaging materials, are presented in this article. Recycling methods, as well as the development trends of polymeric packaging materials are also presented.
