Page 429 - Solid Waste Analysis and Minimization a Systems Approach

31

PLASTIC AND RUBBER

MANUFACTURING

31.1 Industry Overview

NAICS codes: all 32600s

INDUSTRY SNAPSHOT

15,529 plastic- and rubber-manufacturing operations in the United States
983,757 employees
$174.4 billion in annual sales
6.4 tons of solid waste generation per employee
Major waste streams: mixed plastic and office paper

Industries in the plastics and rubber products manufacturing subsector make goods
by processing plastics materials and raw rubber. The core technology employed by
establishments in this subsector is that of plastics or rubber-product production.
Plastics and rubber are combined in the same subsector because plastics are increas-
ingly being used as a substitute for rubber; however, the subsector is generally
restricted to the production of products made of just one material, either solely plas-
tics or rubber.
Many manufacturing activities use plastics or rubber, for example the manufacture
of footwear, or furniture. Typically, the production process of these products involves
more than one material. In these cases, technologies that allow disparate materials to
be formed and combined are of central importance in describing the manufacturing
activity. In the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS), such activi-
ties (the footwear and furniture manufacturing) are not classified in the plastics and

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