Nikita O. Kapustin

Energy Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences

The issue of combating plastic pollution in recent years has come to the forefront of the environmental protection agenda in many of the world’s countries. The answer to it should be the creation of a “circular plastics economy”, which involves a radical change in the production chains of the plastics industry with the transition from fossil hydrocarbons feedstock to the recycling and reuse of polymer waste and is mentioned in the relevant legislations of the European Union, USA, Canada and some other countries. This paper examines the options for the development of the "circularity" of the plastic industry, as well as methodological approaches for forecasting the plastics market and demand for conventional and new types of feedstock for polymer production in the context of industry changes. A modeling complex for analyzing and forecasting the performance of the global plastic industry is proposed, which has a wide range of functions and is suitable for conducting a diverse range of studies of the industry.

plastics industry, modelling, forecasting, circular plastics