Polythene Sheeting is made from a thermoplastic commodity heavily used in consumer products especially the plastic shopping bag. Over 60 million tons of the polythene is manufactured worldwide each year. Polyethylene is a polymer consisting of long chains of the monomer ethylene. The scientific name for polyethene is derived from the scientific name of the monomer. It is useful in certain circumstances to use a structure–based nomenclature. In such cases IUPAC recommends poly(methylene). The difference is because of the opening up of the monomer's double bond upon polymerisation. In the polymer industry the name is sometimes shortened to PE in the same way that other polymers like polypropylene and polystyrene are shortened to PP and PS. In the UK the polymer is commonly called polythene, although that is not recognised scientifically. Polyethylene is created through polymerization of ethene. It can be produced by radical polymerization, anionic addition polymerization, ion coordination polymerization or cationic addition polymerization. This is because ethene does not have any substituent groups that influence the stability of the propagation head of the polymer. Each of these methods results in a different type of polyethylene. Polyethylene is classified into several categories mostly based on its branching and density. The mechanical properties of PE depend significantly on variables such as the extent and type of branching, the crystal structure and the molecular weight.

Ultra high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE)
Ultra low molecular weight polyethylene (ULMWPE - PE-WAX)
High molecular weight polyethylene (HMWPE)
High density polyethylene (HDPE)
High density cross-linked polyethylene (HDXLPE)
Cross-linked polyethylene (PEX)
Medium density polyethylene (MDPE)
Low density polyethylene (LDPE)
Linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE)
Very low density polyethylene (VLDPE)