8. The future and its expectations

8.1 Enhancement and substitution

Research needs to be launched and accelerated:

• to ensure that certain polymers do not release harmful substances over time and that certain polymers do not end up in a degraded form as microparticles dispersed in our natural environment;

• so that dangerous additives can be replaced. In the case of some additives, the question arises as to their real usefulness, or even the optimum dosage;

• to limit the number of additives released during the product life cycle;

• for substitution with biosourced and, above all, biodegradable materials. Researchers are working on new thermoplastics (see note) whose resistance...