The experimental results on the pyrolysis of thermoplastic polymers under high-temperature heating and burning conditions are discussed. The reaction of polymer degradation in this case proceeds in the same way as in a low-temperature region.In this paper we discuss polymeric materials and their widespread application, in connection with the increase in their production. Attention is focused on their resistance to external exposure,and in particular to heating exposures of various intensities. Such exposure of a polymer surface results in heating of the polymer and leads to thermal degradation. The latter process is of paramount importance from different points of view.Questions concerning various aspects of the isothermal degradation of polymers and of theories of thermal degradation have been discussed in detail by a number of investigators; attempts have also been made to establish the dependence of the decomposition mechanisms of polymers on their structures. Comprehensive monographs on these subjects have been written by Jellinek [1], Grassie [2], Madorsky [3] and others [4,5].Extrapolation of the "isothermal" bulk degradation kinetics data to the range of pyrolysis rates usually encountered in surface pyrolysis and burning is considered invalid [6].The simplest case is the thermal degradation and pyrolysis of thermoplastics, i.e. when a polymer is gasified completely. In this connection, it becomes possible to study high-temperature degradation and pyrolysis under quasi-stationary conditions. In the case of polymers of the second and third types, a char residue accumulates on the condensed phase surface; this leads to a continuous change in the conditions of heat transfer in the interface between the gas and condensed phases. The present work is devoted to an analysis of experimental data on the pyrolyses of thermoplastic polymers.A number of techniques have been developed for study of the kinetic characteristics of pyrolysis. These cannot be studied by classical isothermal methods because the pyrolysis rates and temperatures are in ranges inaccessible to