A Technology Road Map for the Plastics Industry 
The Vision: Realizing the Canadian Advantage in a New Polymer Materials Industry

By the year 2017 the enormous flexibility of polymer chemistry, combined with the creative use of new reinforcing agents, advanced design capability and demand for customized and value added products will create a new industry. A "polymer materials industry" will replace plastics, creating new sustainable products and materials. The new industry will step beyond the conventional borders between materials. In the future, the design and manufacture of customer products will be decentralized, flexible and timely. Using personalized design and prototyping systems, customers will order any polymerbased product to fit their specific needs.

The traditional value chain for the plastics industry is shown in Figure 1. However a new, more expansive value chain is emerging, as shown in Figure 2. The polymer materials industry adds new links to the traditional value chain. In the new industry, sustainable options appear at the early stages and added design capabilities create a wider range of options for consumers — especially at end of the chain.

Polymer materials have a unique flexibility that will meet the needs of customers, regulators and distributors. The key is advanced design capabilities that create processes, materials and products to meet very local or truly global conditions.

The polymer materials industry will accommodate a range of preferences, with global design and materials knowledge embedded in software and applied through local processes and distribution. The Opportunities section gives specific examples of how the polymer materials industry of the future will meet customer needs for packaging, building materials, transportation equipment and a range of new applications. The current distinctions among wood, steel, aluminium, plastics, concrete, glass, etc. will disappear. Polymer materials will replace these with customized building blocks that produce any required physical properties while offering the highest standards for sustainability.

The polymer materials industry will enable a global shift from non-renewable materials to reliance on low-cost and low-impact natural, renewable materials.

Canada can be a leader of this new industry. The future begins with adapting and combining the capabilities of businesses across the value chain.

Changes are occurring across four dimensions and these will create the polymer materials industry:

1. Mass Customization,
2. Hybrid Polymer Materials,
3. Sustainable Processes and Products,
4. High Value Products for Customers.

Description Link

Maximum Synergies exist when products use a balanced mix of each of the four dimensions. This "sweet spot" results in outputs using Hybrid Polymer Materials, utilizing Sustainable Processes, Customized to individual needs and delivering a High Value to customers and High Margin to producers.

This report is divided into five sections:

• This introduction describes the vision for the evolution of the polymer materials industry.
• The Drivers describes the factors that are driving these changes and leading the expected change in the industry.
• The Four Dimensions sets out four key dimensions of the polymer materials industry.
• The Opportunities reviews opportunities in each of the main sectors of the plastics industry.
• The Gaps describes the next steps and recommendations for industry stakeholders.