Plastic Additives by Application: 22 End-Use and Process Guides

The end use decides the additive package, because it fixes the property targets, the test methods and the regulations the compound has to satisfy: a pressure-water pipe, a greenhouse film and an IV bag can all be polyethylene or PVC and still share almost no additives, so this index holds one guide for each of 22 end uses and 3 conversion processes. A PE pressure pipe carries carbon black at 2.0 to 2.5 wt% and a compound oxidative induction time of at least 20 minutes at 210°C, a B2ca cable jacket carries aluminium trihydroxide at about 60% of the compound, and a car interior part is judged by VDA 278 emissions and a VDA 270 odour grade, not by an additive specification. Each guide answers the same four questions in the same order, so which families does a given application actually need, at what level, and against which test?

Every guide covers the same five things: the additive package family by family, the typical dosage level, the governing standard, the application-specific regulations and their dates, and the polymers used. Every family named here is defined, dosed and compared on the root reference for plastic additives, so this index states only the level an application forces, never a full dosage table.

This index moves from why packages differ by end use, through the additive-family matrix, to packaging, agriculture and construction, electrical, energy and transport, medical, consumer and fibre applications, the three conversion processes, the test and deadline each application carries, and how to build a package. Packaging is the largest single application of plastic additives by value (IMARC, 2025). The same 43 families sorted by host polymer, rather than by end use, are covered on a sibling reference elsewhere on this site.

Table T1. The 22 application guides in this index

The 5 application sub-pages, greenhouse film and mulch film under agricultural film, PVC pipe under pipes, PVC window profiles under building and construction, and automotive interiors under automotive, are reached from within their parent guide and are not listed as separate rows here.

Why the Application Decides the Additive Package#

Four properties of the end use set the additive package: the service environment the part has to survive, the approval standard it has to pass, the medium it touches, and the process that shapes it. These four determinants act independently of the polymer: two parts moulded from the same polyethylene grade can leave the plant with almost no shared additive if one is a drinking-water pipe and the other is a mulch film. The sections below take each determinant in turn, with the application that illustrates it most clearly.

The service environment decides the stabilizer#

A buried pressure pipe, a landfill liner and a season-long mulch film are all polyethylene, and the difference between a compound that lasts fifty years and one that is designed to fail in four months is the stabilizer package. The dominant stress an application faces, heat, oxygen, ultraviolet light or mechanical fatigue, decides which stabilizer family carries the load and at what level.

• PE pressure pipe. Carbon black at 2.0 to 2.5 wt% gives a compound oxidative induction time of at least 20 minutes at 210°C under EN 12201-1 and ISO 4427-1.
• HDPE geomembrane. Under GRI-GM13 Rev. 16, carbon black runs 2.0 to 3.0%, with a standard OIT of at least 100 minutes or an HP-OIT of at least 400 minutes.
• Agricultural film. Greenhouse film runs 80 to 220 µm for 6 to 45 months and mulch film runs 12 to 80 µm for 2 to 4 months, each life span set by a different HALS loading.
• Rotationally moulded parts. More than 80% of rotomoulding material is polyethylene, run at an oven temperature of 300°C for 1 to 2 cycles per hour, a thermal history that consumes more antioxidant than a shear-cooled process would.

Which degradation route dominates in service is set out under polymer degradation.

The approval standard decides the flame retardant and the test#

No additive specification forces a loading as hard as a fire class does: reaching cable Euroclass B2ca without halogens means filling the jacket with aluminium trihydroxide to about 60% of the compound, which is a formulation decision the polymer never makes on its own. Each application's fire, emissions or biocompatibility standard sets a pass or fail threshold, and the package is built to clear it with margin.

• Cable, EU Construction Products Regulation Euroclasses (EN 50399). B1ca allows flame spread of at most 1.75 m; B2ca relaxes that to 1.5 m, and both require class a1 acidity, conductivity below 2.5 µS/mm and pH above 4.3.
• Automotive interiors, FMVSS 302 (49 CFR 571.302). Interior burn rate must not exceed 102 mm per minute.
• Aircraft cabin panels, 14 CFR 25 Appendix F Part IV. Two-minute total heat release must not exceed 65 kW·min/m2, with a smoke density Ds of at most 200 at 4 minutes.
• Appliance housings, IEC 60335-1 clause 30.2.3. A part carrying more than 0.2 A needs a glow-wire ignition temperature of at least 775°C, or a test on the part at 750°C with flaming of at most 2 seconds.

Every method above is described under testing plastic additives.

Each standard above comes from a different governing body: EN 50399 from CEN, FMVSS 302 from NHTSA, 14 CFR 25 from the FAA and IEC 60335-1 from the IEC, so a compounder supplying more than one market tracks four parallel fire and safety regimes for the same polymer family.

Electrical and electronic housings are specified beyond the glow-wire test against UL 94 flammability ratings, the classification a flame retardant package has to meet.

The contact medium decides what is legally allowed#

The same stabilizer can be unrestricted in a car bumper, capped by a specific migration limit in a yoghurt pot and absent from the positive list that will govern drinking-water pipes in the European Union from 31 December 2026. What an application touches, food, drinking water, blood, or nothing at all, decides which positive list or limit applies first.

• Food contact. Every additive must be on the Union list of Regulation (EU) No 10/2011 Annex I, subject to an overall migration limit of 10 mg/dm2 and a generic SML of 60 mg/kg.
• Drinking water. Implementing Decision (EU) 2024/367 positive lists apply from 31 December 2026, capping carbon black at 2.5% w/w of the plastic.
• Medical devices, invasive and fluid-path. EU MDR Annex I §10.4.1 allows a CMR 1A/1B or endocrine-disrupting substance above 0.1% w/w only with a documented justification and a disclosure label.
• Food-contact packaging, PFAS. From 12 August 2026, Regulation (EU) 2025/40 (PPWR) Article 5 limits any single targeted PFAS to 25 ppb and total PFAS to 50 mg/kg.

The instruments behind these limits are indexed under plastic additive regulations.

The conversion process decides the processing additives#

Market and process are orthogonal: a pipe is a construction product by market and an extrusion by process, and the process side of its package, the lubricants, the processing aids and the melt stabilisers, is set by the thermal and shear history the machine imposes. A part's market determines the performance package; the machine that shapes it determines a separate, smaller package.

• Rotational moulding. A long, static melt-state time at an oven temperature of 300°C, with 1 to 2 cycles per hour, forces the highest antioxidant loadings of any polyethylene process.
• Film extrusion. Fluoropolymer processing aids are limited to 0.2 wt% in olefin polymers with 65 to 71% fluorine content under 21 CFR 177.1520, and remove the melt fracture that otherwise limits line speed.
• Injection moulding. Mould release, nucleating agents, lubricants and antistatic agents are added for reasons that have nothing to do with the part's end use; pentaerythritol tetrastearate is capped at 0.5 wt% as mould release in food-contact polycarbonate under 21 CFR 177.1580.

How this package is mixed into the polymer is covered under plastic compounding.

Which Additives Does Each Application Need? The Application and Additive Matrix#

The matrix below maps the additive families of this reference onto the 22 applications, so a formulator can read a starting package off one row or one column instead of assembling it from 43 family pages. A filled cell means the family is normally present in a commercial compound for that end use; it does not mean the family is mandatory, and several applications reach an acceptable compound without every family their row or column suggests.

The same families sorted by host polymer, with the phr conventions each polymer uses, are on additives by polymer, the sibling axis to the application view built here: one page answers "what does this product need", the other answers "what does this polymer need".

Packaging, agriculture, medical and consumer applications#

Packaging and consumer applications share a surface-and-compliance profile: most of their additives either work at the film or article surface or are limited by a specific migration limit. Slip agents in LDPE and LLDPE film run 0.05 to 0.12 wt% (500 to 1,200 ppm), and anthranilamide, the PET acetaldehyde scavenger cleared under EU FCM No 164 with an SML of 0.05 mg/kg, is authorised only for PET used in water and beverage bottles, two examples of how narrowly some families are scoped to a single application below.

Table T2. Additive families by application: packaging, agriculture, medical and consumer

Construction, energy, transport and process applications#

Construction, energy and transport applications share a lifetime-and-fire profile: their additives are dominated by long-term stabilizers and by the fillers that carry a fire class. PE pressure pipe carries carbon black at 2.0 to 2.5 wt% with a compound OIT of at least 20 minutes at 210°C, and a halogen-free cable jacket carries aluminium trihydroxide at about 60% of the compound, the two clearest illustrations of how far a filler loading can move once a fire or lifetime standard is in force.

Table T3. Additive families by application: construction, energy, transport and process

Additives for Packaging Applications#

Packaging is the largest application of plastic additives by value (IMARC, 2025), and its four sub-markets, film, food packaging, bottles and closures, are separated less by chemistry than by which compliance regime applies.

Additives for packaging film#

Packaging film compounds carry a processing stabilizer pair, a slip agent at 500 to 1,200 ppm, an antiblock mineral and usually a processing aid, because film performance is decided at the surface. Erucamide or oleamide reaches most of its coefficient-of-friction reduction within 24 to 48 hours and its final value after 7 to 10 days, measured by ASTM D1894; erucamide itself is cleared for food-contact film under EU FCM No 271 with no specific migration limit. A fluoropolymer processing aid, capped at 0.2 wt% under 21 CFR 177.1520, removes melt fracture as line speed rises, and mono-material film structures now push slip and antiblock levels closer together, since one layer has to deliver both properties a multilayer structure once split.

Additives for food packaging#

Food packaging does not need different additives from other packaging; it needs the same additives cleared for the job, which in the European Union means presence on the Union list of Regulation (EU) No 10/2011 and compliance with an overall migration limit of 10 mg/dm2 and a generic specific migration limit of 60 mg/kg. From 12 August 2026, Regulation (EU) 2025/40 (PPWR) Article 5 adds a PFAS ceiling of 25 ppb for any single targeted substance and 50 mg/kg for total PFAS, and caps heavy metals at 100 mg/kg. Bisphenols in food-contact plastics are already restricted under Regulation (EU) 2024/3190, in force since 20 January 2025, with repeat-use articles required off the market by 20 January 2029.

Additives for plastic bottles and containers#

Bottle compounds are built around two problems PET creates for itself: acetaldehyde, which is tasted in water at 10 to 20 parts per billion, and the preform reheat step in injection stretch blow moulding. Anthranilamide scavenges that acetaldehyde under EU FCM No 164 with a specific migration limit of 0.05 mg/kg, cleared only for PET used in water and beverage bottles. Bottle-grade PET carries an intrinsic viscosity of 0.70 to 0.78 dL/g for water and general bottles, rising to 0.78 to 0.85 dL/g for carbonated soft-drink bottles, and an infrared absorber shortens the reheat step that the stretch-blow process depends on.

Additives for caps and closures#

Closure compounds are the clearest case of an additive set by a single number: the torque a consumer can apply, which is tuned with a slip amide at the article surface. In one study, Dulal and colleagues (2017) found that a surface erucamide concentration of 15.7 µg/cm2 was needed to reduce HDPE closure application torque to target, against only 1.7 µg/cm2 for behenamide, a difference that shapes which slip amide a compounder chooses for a given resin. A nucleating agent shortens the moulding cycle and controls shrinkage, and the food-contact antioxidant package and colorant complete a closure formulation that carries almost none of a bottle's own additive load.

Additives for Agriculture and Construction#

Agriculture and construction ask the same question in two time frames: agricultural film has to survive an exactly specified number of seasons and then leave the field, while a pipe, a window profile or a liner has to survive decades and is judged by an oxidative-induction or impact test rather than by a season count.

Additives for agricultural film#

Agricultural film is the largest single application of hindered amine light stabilizers, and its films are specified by service life rather than by property: 80 to 220 µm greenhouse film for 6 to 45 months, 12 to 80 µm mulch film for 2 to 4 months. HALS dosage in agricultural film runs 0.5 to 2.0 wt% for a Uvinul 5050 H type product, and Tinuvin NOR 371, an NOR-HALS grade chosen for its resistance to pesticide-acidified films, is used at 0.2 to 1.6 wt% in greenhouse film specifically. Silage stretch film, laid at 25 µm in 4 to 6 layers, uses a shorter-term light stabilizer package because its service life is measured in months rather than years.

Greenhouse film#

Greenhouse film fails where the agrochemical meets the stabilizer: sulfur and halogenated pesticides acidify the film and deactivate basic N-H hindered amines. In a paper presented at AMI Agricultural Films 2010, BASF reported that raising film sulfur from about 1,000 to 2,000 ppm cut greenhouse film life by 20 to 25%. Antifog surfactant in a co-extruded LDPE and EVA structure is used at 3 wt% in the EVA layer plus 1 wt% in the LDPE layer, and in a 2017 study in Membranes, Waldo-Mendoza and colleagues gave a best antifog permanency close to 3,000 hours at that loading, with a 5 wt% loading giving no further improvement in wetting. Dosage tables and pesticide-resistance data at this level of detail belong to the dedicated additives for greenhouse film guide, coming soon on this reference.

Mulch film#

Mulch film is the one application where the additive package is designed to fail on schedule, because the film has to hold for two to four months and then be removed or degrade. Plastic mulch consumption runs to about 700,000 t/yr worldwide, and oxo-degradable plastic products, once used to shorten a mulch film's working life on a schedule, have been banned in the European Union since 3 July 2021 under Directive (EU) 2019/904 Article 5. Mulch film formulators instead specify the UV stabilizer package to hold for the stated 2 to 4 months and no longer, rather than to the multi-year target used for greenhouse film. The full defined-life formulation sits on the dedicated additives for mulch film guide, coming soon on this reference.

Additives for plastic pipes#

Pipe compounds are judged by two numbers: the carbon black that screens the ultraviolet, at 2.0 to 2.5 wt% in pressure pipe, and the oxidative induction time of the compound, at least 20 minutes at 210°C. Both figures come from EN 12201-1 and ISO 4427-1, the standards that govern PE100 and PE-RT pressure pipe. From 31 December 2026, Implementing Decision (EU) 2024/367 applies its positive lists to drinking-water contact, capping carbon black at 2.5% w/w of the plastic under entry 0348. Dicumyl peroxide, the crosslinker commonly used for PEX-a and XLPE pipe, has been on the REACH Candidate List as a harmonised Reproductive category 1B substance since 27 June 2024, a listing that compounders using it now track alongside the pressure and OIT specifications.

PVC pipe#

PVC pipe splits the world along the stabilizer: tin in the United States at 0.3 to 1.0 phr, calcium-zinc and calcium-organic one-packs in the European Union after the voluntary lead phase-out. US methyltin and butyltin stabilizers run 0.3 to 1.0 phr under PPI TR-2, while EU industry reported completing its voluntary lead phase-out to calcium-zinc and calcium-organic systems in 2015. Drainpipe compounds carry calcium carbonate at 15 to 20%, and an impact modifier below 3 phr is ineffective. Since 29 November 2024, lead in PVC articles is restricted to below 0.1% under REACH Annex XVII entry 63, with recovered rigid PVC allowed up to 1.5% lead in six named categories until 28 May 2033. The full stabilizer comparison sits on the dedicated additives for PVC pipe guide, coming soon on this reference.

Additives for building and construction#

Building and construction is the application where legacy additives, not new ones, drive the formulation, because recovered rigid PVC may still carry up to 1.5% lead in six named product categories until 28 May 2033. Those categories must be marked "Contains at least 0,1% lead," and from 28 May 2026 recovered rigid PVC from categories (a) to (d) may only re-enter the same categories it came from, a closed-loop condition the European Commission is due to review by 28 May 2028.

PVC window profiles#

A white window profile is a titanium dioxide formulation before it is anything else, because the pigment does the ultraviolet screening that a thick rigid section needs for decades outdoors. Rutile-grade titanium dioxide provides that screening, an acrylic core-shell impact modifier gives weatherable profiles their falling-mass impact resistance under EN 12608-1, and coated calcium carbonate at 5 to 15% fills out the formulation. The European Union runs calcium-zinc or calcium-organic one-packs in window profiles, while US siding and window formulations still use butyltin stabilizers. The full profile formulation sits on the dedicated additives for PVC window profiles guide, coming soon on this reference.

Additives for wood-plastic composites#

Wood-plastic composites are limited from above by the wood: the compound has to be processed at least 28°C below the unfilled resin and below about 200°C, because cellulose degrades. Maleated polypropylene coupling agent, dosed at 1 to 3 wt%, bonds the polar wood flour to the non-polar polyolefin matrix. In a documented recycled-content formulation, a WPC decking compound used 34% recycled HDPE with 60% sawdust plus a coupling wax, an illustration of how far filler loading can run once the coupling chemistry is in place.

Additives for geomembranes#

A geomembrane is a two-additive product specified in unusual detail: carbon black at 2.0 to 3.0% and an antioxidant package large enough to give a high-pressure oxidative induction time of at least 400 minutes. GRI-GM13 Rev. 16 sets carbon black content by ASTM D4218, a standard OIT of at least 100 minutes by ASTM D8117 or an HP-OIT of at least 400 minutes by ASTM D5885, retention of at least 55% standard OIT or 80% HP-OIT after 90 days at 85°C, at least 50% HP-OIT after 1,600 hours of UV exposure, and stress-crack resistance of 500 hours by ASTM D5397.

Additives for plastic foams#

Foam is the application where the blowing agent and the flame retardant have to be chosen together, because the cell structure that gives the insulation value also feeds a fire. XPS and EPS insulation has moved from HBCDD to a polymeric brominated styrene-butadiene copolymer flame retardant, and polyurethane insulation is commonly formulated with TCPP. Azodicarbonamide, the chemical blowing agent used in foamed polyethylene, is limited to 5 wt% under 21 CFR 178.3010 and has been listed as an SVHC since 19 December 2012.

Additives for Electrical, Energy and Transport Applications#

Electrical, energy and transport applications are governed by fire classes and by emissions the driver or passenger can smell, and both are written as pass or fail thresholds that the additive package has to hit exactly.

Additives for wire and cable compounds#

A halogen-free cable jacket is mostly filler: aluminium trihydroxide at about 60% of the compound, which absorbs 1,051 joules per gram and releases water from about 200°C. A published Huber reference LSZH formulation runs EVA 67, LLDPE 17, coupling agents 16, ATH 160 and antioxidants 1.0 phr; above 200°C the jacket switches to magnesium dihydroxide, since coated MDH at 185.7 phr in polypropylene gives a limiting oxygen index of 30.2%. PVC cable insulation should reach an LOI of at least 26 vol% oxygen, with zinc borate dosed at 3 to 6 phr as a synergist. Regulation (EU) 2024/3110, the new Construction Products Regulation, applies from 8 January 2026 and keeps cables as product family 31, while dicumyl peroxide, the XLPE crosslinker, has been on the REACH Candidate List since 27 June 2024.

Additives for electrical and electronics#

Electrical and electronic housings are formulated against thresholds no other application uses: a glow-wire ignition temperature, a comparative tracking index and a flammability rating measured at the wall thickness of the part. IEC 60335-1 clause 30.2.3 requires an unattended appliance part carrying more than 0.2 A to reach a glow-wire flammability index of at least 850°C and a glow-wire ignition temperature of at least 775°C, or to pass a glow-wire test on the finished part at 750°C with flaming of at most 2 seconds. A flame retardant package is chosen to clear that threshold with margin, and a laser-marking additive is frequently included so serial numbers and compliance marks can be added without ink.

Additives for solar encapsulants and backsheets#

A photovoltaic encapsulant is the one application where the additive package is validated by a single number, the gel content, with an optimum window of 84 to 90%. EVA and POE encapsulants are crosslinked with an organic peroxide such as TBEC, a TAIC coagent and a vinyl-silane adhesion promoter, and stabilised with a phosphite antioxidant such as Irgafos 126 and a HALS such as Tinuvin 770. In studies reported by Wallner and colleagues (2022) and Wu and colleagues (2023), time to 95% crosslinking at 150°C ran 8.9 minutes for EVA and 14.6 minutes for POE, with gel content measured by Soxhlet extraction under IEC 62788-1-6. Phenolic, nitroxyl and phosphite antioxidants can interfere with peroxide crosslinking, while HALS-based systems do not.

Additives for EV battery and e-mobility plastics#

Battery and e-mobility parts stack requirements that normally belong to different industries: a halogen-free V-0 rating, a high comparative tracking index, thermal conductivity and a colour that is itself a safety code. Halogen-free flame retardants, including phosphinates, melamine polyphosphate and NOR-HALS synergists, are used to reach UL 94 V-0 in polypropylene, polycarbonate, polyamide and PBT, and thermally conductive fillers such as boron nitride and alumina manage heat inside the pack. Orange colorant is specified on high-voltage housings as a visual safety code, and laser-marking additives add the identification marks these parts require.

Additives for automotive plastics#

Automotive is three applications in one compound family: an interior judged by what it emits, an exterior judged by how it weathers and takes paint, and an under-bonnet part judged by long-term heat ageing. FMVSS 302 (49 CFR 571.302) limits interior burn rate to 102 mm/minute on a specimen up to 13 mm thick. Talc-filled polypropylene runs from grade T10 to T40 for lightweighting, copper iodide and potassium iodide heat stabilizers protect glass-filled PA66 under the bonnet, and non-interacting HALS grades are chosen for paintable TPO exteriors so the light stabilizer does not interfere with the paint cure.

Automotive interiors#

An interior part is rejected for what it releases, not for what it measures mechanically, and the three tests that decide it are VDA 278 emissions, VDA 270 odour and DIN 75201 fogging. VDA 278 runs a thermal-desorption GC-MS analysis at 90°C for 30 minutes, quantified as toluene equivalents, while VDA 270 conditions a sample at 80°C for 2 hours and rates it on a 1 to 6 odour panel scale, from 1 (not perceptible) to 6 (intolerable). DIN 75201 fogging is a separate test that a common antioxidant, BHT, is known to raise, which is why interior grades are formulated around low-fogging stabilizer alternatives. The full emissions and scratch-resistance package sits on the dedicated additives for automotive interiors guide, coming soon on this reference.

Additives for Medical, Consumer and Fibre Applications#

Medical devices, toys and fibres are the applications where a substance can be technically ideal and still be excluded, because each is governed by a regime that restricts by hazard class rather than by performance.

Additives for medical plastics#

Medical plastics are formulated backwards from a deadline: DEHP may be used in European medical devices only until the sunset date of 1 July 2030, with the latest application date for authorisation on 1 January 2029, under Regulation (EU) 2023/2482. Alternatives already in commercial use include DEHT, DINCH, BTHC and TOTM. EU MDR Annex I §10.4.1 requires a documented justification and a label before a CMR 1A/1B or endocrine-disrupting substance can be used above 0.1% w/w in an invasive or fluid-path device, and biocompatibility is evaluated under the ISO 10993 series, led by ISO 10993-1:2025. A gamma-sterilisable polypropylene compound uses a hindered amine plus a phenolic or phosphite antioxidant at 0.01 to 1 phr each, and barium sulfate provides radiopacity.

Additives in toys and childcare articles#

Toys are moving from a substance-by-substance list to a generic ban: under Regulation (EU) 2025/2509, general application from 1 August 2030, a classification alone excludes an additive. The regulation entered into force on 1 January 2026, with Articles 28 to 44 and 49 to 55 already applying from that date, and it carries a generic ban on CMR and endocrine-disrupting substances, a prohibition on intentional PFAS use, and a ban on the 10 bisphenols in Appendix Part D. In the United States, 16 CFR 1307 restricts 8 phthalates above 0.1% in toys and childcare articles, while EU REACH Annex XVII entry 52 restricts DINP, DIDP and DNOP only in mouthable toys; DINP itself is not banned in the EU.

Additives for fibres, textiles and nonwovens#

Fibre is a thin-section, high-surface-area application, so it takes the highest light-stabilizer loadings of any polypropylene product: 0.1 to 1.4 wt% of hindered amine in the fibre itself. PP and HDPE tapes, used for raffia and woven sacks, run a lower 0.1 to 0.8 wt%, and gas-fade-resistant antioxidants are specified for white and pastel fibre to prevent the yellowing some antioxidants cause under nitrogen oxide exposure. Erucamide, added for softness in PP nonwovens, forms bilayers on the fibre surface rather than migrating uniformly through the polymer.

Additives for 3D printing filaments#

Filament formulation is dominated by one failure mode, brittleness, and the fix is the same plasticiser and nucleator pair used in other polylactic acid products. In a 2025 study in Polymers, Namhongsa and colleagues gave a PLA filament formulated with 3 wt% acetyl triethyl citrate and 0.3 wt% zinc phenylphosphonate a tensile strength of 35.0 MPa and an elongation at break of 232%, against 12.1% for neat PLA, with crystallinity rising from 4.7% to 45%.

Additives by Conversion Process#

Market and process are orthogonal: a pressure pipe is a construction product by market and an extrusion by process. The three process guides below cover only what the machine forces on the package, the processing aids, lubricants, release agents and melt stabilisers, and never repeat the film, pipe or cable packages already described above.

Additives for injection molding#

Injection moulding adds four families for reasons that have nothing to do with the end product: release from the tool, a shorter cycle, easier flow and a part that does not attract dust. Mould release agents, nucleating agents for cycle time, lubricants and antistatic agents make up the process package, and pentaerythritol tetrastearate is capped at 0.5 wt% as an internal mould release in food-contact polycarbonate under 21 CFR 177.1580.

Additives for plastic extrusion#

Extrusion is where the processing aid earns its place: a fluoropolymer at 0.2 wt% or less removes the melt fracture that otherwise limits line speed. That 0.2 wt% ceiling applies to olefin polymers with 65 to 71% fluorine content under 21 CFR 177.1520, rising to 1.0 wt% for grades with at least 87% vinylidene fluoride; a universal EU restriction on PFAS, which would affect this family, remains a proposed instrument and has not entered into force.

Additives for rotational molding#

Rotational moulding is the most thermally punishing process in this reference: one or two cycles an hour with the oven at 300°C, which is why rotomoulding grades carry more antioxidant than any other polyethylene product. More than 80% of the material used in rotomoulding is polyethylene, and the internal air reaches an end point of 180°C during a cycle with no shear to help distribute heat, unlike extrusion or injection moulding.

Which Test Decides Each Application#

Every application in this index is signed off by one or two tests, and those tests, not the additive datasheets, are what the formulation is tuned against. Both the pipe and the geomembrane specification are written as an oxidative induction time, while a cable jacket is signed off by a fire class and a car interior by an emissions and odour panel, so the test named below is the real design target for each package.

Table T4. The decisive test or specification for each application

PVC cable insulation is judged by a limiting oxygen index before any full-scale fire test is run. This limiting oxygen index screen is covered in full on its own test page, alongside the standard and high-pressure OIT methods used for pipe and geomembrane.

Deadlines That Are Written per Application#

Most of the deadlines that will change an additive package in the next five years are written for an end use rather than for a chemical, which is why a formulator who tracks substances alone will miss them. A pipe compounder needs to know about a drinking-water regulation, a cable compounder about a construction-products regulation, and a toy compounder about a toy safety regulation, even where the underlying chemical restriction never changes.

Table T5. Regulatory deadlines by application

Pending, not yet in force: the EU universal PFAS restriction (proposed), the ECHA brominated flame retardant restriction for electrical and electronic equipment (proposed), the End-of-Life Vehicles Regulation (adopted, not yet fully in force) and the PPWR recyclability delegated acts (pending adoption).

The positive lists that will govern pipe compounds from 31 December 2026 are set out under plastic additives in drinking-water contact, which lists every entry on the drinking-water positive lists alongside its limit.

Both deadlines fall within an eight-month window of each other, so a compounder supplying both drinking-water pipe and food-contact packaging tracks two unrelated positive lists that close out within the same budget cycle, one written for a contact medium and one written for a packaging format.

The per-fluoroalkyl limits that apply to food-contact packaging from 12 August 2026 come from the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, covered there in full alongside the regulation's recycled-content targets.

How to Build an Additive Package for Your Application#

Build the package from the end use inwards, not from the additive outwards, because the standard and the deadline are fixed while the chemistry is negotiable. The five steps below follow the same order every guide in this index uses.

1. Write down the service environment and required service life.
2. Find the standard and the test that sign the part off.
3. Check which positive list or restriction governs the contact medium, and note its date.
4. Read the starting package off the matrix row, then set exact levels from the relevant family hub; the full framework, with the worksheet, is on how to select plastic additives.
5. Check interactions and processing constraints before the first trial sample.

Find the additive families for your application and polymer with the additive finder by polymer and function, a tool that is coming soon on this reference.

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What the Application Decides About Exposure, Recycling and End of Life#

The end use also decides who is exposed to an additive and what happens to it afterwards. A food tray is eaten from, a cable is buried, a mulch film is ploughed in, and each of those routes is regulated separately from the compound itself, so exposure and end-of-life questions sit below this border because they apply across, not within, individual applications. Which of these packages survive mechanical recycling is covered under how additives affect plastic recyclability, the reference this section builds on for the two exposure and end-of-life questions specific to application choice.

Under Regulation (EU) 2025/40 (PPWR), recycled-content targets for contact-sensitive PET reach 30% from 2030 and 50% from 2040, other contact-sensitive packaging reaches 10% from 2030 and 25% from 2040, single-use beverage bottles reach 30% from 2030 and 65% from 2040, and other packaging reaches 35% from 2030 and 65% from 2040. Oxo-degradable plastic products, once marketed for a defined field life in mulch and bag applications, have been banned in the European Union since 3 July 2021 under Directive (EU) 2019/904 Article 5.

Legacy additives in application-specific recyclate#

Recyclate carries the additive history of its first application, which is why the European lead restriction had to be written per construction product category rather than per polymer. Recovered rigid PVC may carry lead below 1.5% in six named construction categories until 28 May 2033, marked "Contains at least 0,1% lead," with a closed-loop condition applying to those categories from 28 May 2026. Restabilization levels for recyclate are on additives for recycled plastics, which covers why a first-life package is partly consumed and needs a fresh antioxidant dose before a second processing pass, and notes that recyclate is not permitted in pressurised gas or drinking-water PP pipe.

Applications and materials this reference does not cover#

This reference covers additives used in plastics, so several neighbouring application fields are deliberately out of scope even where the same chemical appears in them. The exclusions below are all outside the plastics-additive border this site maintains:

• Concrete and cement admixtures
• Paints, coatings and inks
• Adhesives and sealants
• Fuel and lubricating-oil additives
• Food and feed additives
• Cosmetics
• Textile finishing chemicals
• Paper chemicals
• Pure rubber chemistry (accelerators, vulcanising agents)

General polymer science, how a plastic is made or what PVC is, consumer product advice, and the base properties of a polymer where no additive changes them are also outside this reference's scope. Rail, aerospace and marine interior applications are not yet covered by a dedicated guide on this site.