The European plastics industry

The European plastics industry - plastics producers, converters and machinery manufacturers - are a major contributor to the European economy.  The industry directly employs some 1.6 million people and many more that work in industries relying on plastics for their business.  Together the different parts of the industry contributed around 13 billion euro in trade surplus to the EU27 economy in 2008 - helping to reduce an overall industrial trade deficit of over 240 million euros.