April 22 this year marks the 55th Earth Day, and this year's theme is "Global War Plastics". Due to their light weight, low manufacturing cost and strong plasticity, plastics are widely used worldwide. According to statistics, from 2015 to 2023, global plastic production increased from 320 million tons to 430 million tons, and production is expected to triple by 2050. However, at the same time, because it is difficult to decompose in the natural environment, it is easy to lead to the pollution of soil, ocean and other ecosystems, plastic has brought severe challenges to human life, and "global war plastic" has increasingly become an urgent environmental issue. Since 2008, China officially kicked off the prelude to plastic restriction, and the war plastic has been 16 years, from the source of plastic reduction to scientific substitution and then to recycling, we have gone through this ......
Plastic reduction: Focus on key areas such as e-commerce and takeaway, and do a good job in source control
For a long time, China has attached great importance to the control of plastic pollution. In 2008, the implementation of the "Notice of the General Office of the State Council on Restricting the Production and Sales of Plastic Shopping Bags" opened the prelude to China's plastic restriction in one fell swoop. In January 2020, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Ecology and Environment issued and implemented the "Opinions on Further Strengthening the Control of Plastic Pollution" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions"), which is divided into three time periods: 2020, 2022 and 2025, clarifying the phased tasks and objectives of strengthening plastic pollution control.
During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, plastic pollution control was once again put on the agenda. In September 2021, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) issued the 14th Five-Year Plan for Plastic Pollution Control, which sets out tasks such as promoting the reduction of plastic production and use at the source, and accelerating the standardized recycling and disposal of plastic waste.
Policy documents at the provincial level are also being followed. For example, Qinghai, Fujian and Tianjin have successively released the "14th Five-Year Plan" plastic pollution control action plan. Guangdong Province has released the Action Plan for Plastic Pollution Control in Guangdong Province (2022-2025). The "Regulations on the Prohibition and Restriction of Non-degradable Disposable Plastic Products in Henan Province" will be officially implemented from January 1, 2024. Zhejiang Province recently issued the "Key Work List of Plastic Pollution Control in Zhejiang Province in 2024".
The reporter combed and found that in the above-mentioned documents, the source of plastic reduction mostly focused on express delivery, e-commerce, postal, catering, takeaway and other industries, mentioning that "e-commerce enterprises, takeaway platforms, etc. are encouraged to strengthen the management of settled merchants, and formulate an implementation plan for the reduction and substitution of disposable plastic products." "Encourage e-commerce companies to reduce the amount of express packaging through direct procurement from the origin, original direct hair, and direct delivery of poly orders. Reduce the secondary packaging of goods in the express link. Guide e-commerce companies to cooperate with express delivery companies to reduce excessive packaging and random packaging. and other specific regulations to guide relevant industries to "travel lightly" and practice deceleration at the source.
In agricultural production, agricultural film is an indispensable means of production in the field, but discarding and burying agricultural film at will may lead to pollution of cultivated land resources, aggravate the accumulation of microplastics in the soil, and threaten the quality and safety of agricultural products. At present, strengthening the management of agricultural mulch film is also a key task in the fight against plastic pollution.
In 2023, Ordos City will complete the promotion of 500,000 mu of thickened high-strength plastic film and 100,000 mu of fully biodegradable film through the integration of central, municipal, and banner district three-level matching funds, and in 2024, it will also make every effort to complete the promotion of 500,000 mu of thickened high-strength plastic film and 60,000 mu of fully biodegradable film, so as to realize the high-quality development of agriculture driven by green agricultural materials. In the Lengshuitan District of Yongzhou, Hunan, the promotion of fully biodegradable and thickened high-strength plastic film is also in full swing, and this year it is planned to promote the application of thickened high-strength plastic film and fully biodegradable plastic film about 27,000 acres.
It is understood that compared with ordinary plastic film, the thickness of thickened high-strength plastic film is more than 0.015 mm, with good toughness, high strength, easy to recycle and other characteristics, and fully biodegradable plastic film can be degraded naturally, without manual recycling, the research and development and use of two types of plastic film, to prevent residual film pollution farmland to provide an effective weapon.
Substitution: "Bamboo instead of plastic" pollution control and resource activation are correct
While guarding the "source", exploring better alternatives to plastics is also an important solution.
As a renewable green resource, bamboo has good toughness, high hardness, good plasticity, high carbon sequestration and carbon absorption efficiency, and strong carbon capture and storage capacity, making it an ideal plastic substitute. China is rich in bamboo resources and has a long history of bamboo product production. According to the ninth national forest resources survey, China's bamboo forest area is 6,411,600 hectares, including 4,677,800 hectares of moso bamboo forest, and the annual usable bamboo resources exceed 100 million tons.
It is estimated that if the world uses 100 million tons of "bamboo instead of plastic" products every year, it is expected to reduce about 600 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions. Promoting "replacing plastic with bamboo" can not only provide a new solution for the source control of plastic pollution, but also further activate the development potential of bamboo resources and provide a new development path for areas with abundant bamboo resources.
In Anji, Zhejiang, China's bamboo township, the total output value of the county's bamboo industry in 2022 will be about 16.6 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of about 7.7%. In Nanping, Fujian Province, the bamboo industry chain has been continuously extended, from disposable fast-moving consumer goods to bamboo furniture and bamboo materials deep processing, showing vigorous vitality; in Ji'an, Jiangxi, one after another "bamboo instead of plastic" industrial projects have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain. According to reports, in 2022, the total output value of the city's bamboo industry will exceed 5.4 billion yuan, and the number of employees in the bamboo industry will reach 156,400. High-quality and inexpensive bamboo products have entered local institutions, schools, hotels, scenic spots, supermarkets......
In October 2023, the National Development and Reform Commission and other four departments jointly issued the "Three-year Action Plan for Accelerating the Development of "Bamboo instead of Plastic", proposing the action goal: by 2025, the "Bamboo instead of Plastic" industrial system will be initially established, and a more in-depth and detailed layout will be made for the further improvement of product quality, product types, industrial scale and comprehensive benefits of the bamboo industry.
At present, there are tens of thousands of bamboo processing enterprises in China, which have developed more than 100 series and more than 10,000 kinds of products, which play an important role in residents' lives, industrial production, building materials, textiles and papermaking and other industries, and have achieved plastic substitution in many fields. However, at the same time, the industrialization process of "replacing plastic with bamboo" is also facing some blockages.
During the two sessions this year, Wang Yucheng, deputy to the National People's Congress and secretary of the party branch of Yucun Village, Anji County, Zhejiang, said that the domestic "bamboo instead of plastic" market is still in the initial stage of exploration, and the level of green and low-carbon life consumption concept is not high, and it is difficult for consumers to accept slightly higher cost or equivalent products with the same function. Problems such as few varieties and single varieties of "substitute plastic" bamboo, low matching degree between supply and demand, and low coverage of scene applications are also worthy of attention.
In this regard, he suggested that the establishment and improvement of the bamboo industry development policy system, strengthen the coordination of departmental policies, and give policy preferences in bamboo forest cultivation, scientific and technological innovation, cultivation and cultivation, project attraction, factor guarantee, application and promotion.
At the same time, it is further clarified that the "bamboo instead of plastic" industries such as bamboo-based new biological materials and bamboo-derived fibers will be included in the scope of strategic emerging industries and energy-saving and environmental protection industries, and the right to use pollutant discharge indicators will be guaranteed. Promote the inclusion of bamboo reconstituted boards and bamboo steel structural materials into the construction industry standards and specifications, and accelerate the application and promotion in multiple fields.
Recycling: Recycling technology turns plastic into value
The plastic recycling industry also has great potential. The "14th Five-Year Plan" Action Plan for Plastic Pollution Control mentions "encouraging the homogeneous and high value-added utilization of plastic waste", with a view to accelerating the standardized recycling and disposal of plastic waste.
According to the statistics of the Recycled Plastics Branch of the China Materials Recycling Association, in 2022, China will produce 63 million tons of waste plastics, of which only 18 million tons will be recycled, and the recycling rate of materials will be about 30%. The remaining about 70% of a large number of low-value plastic waste such as plastic shopping bags, express bags, take-out lunch boxes, mulch films, and plastic packaging of various commodities basically do not have the technical and economic conditions for physical recycling, and are often mixed with domestic garbage to be incinerated or landfilled, resulting in serious waste of resources, which has become the biggest difficulty and pain point in plastic pollution control.
In the eyes of industry insiders, the chemical cycle can effectively break through the limitations of the application scenarios of physical recycling of plastics, convert the polymer carbon chain in plastics into small molecules, which can be used to produce fuels, chemical products, or reused in the production of plastics, so as to achieve a closed cycle of "from plastic to plastic".
During the two sessions this year, Li Jinghong, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and a professor at the Department of Chemistry of Tsinghua University, said that the chemical recycling of waste plastics can reduce the consumption of primary resources such as oil, turn "white pollution" into "white oil fields", and provide a strong guarantee for energy and resource security.
It is estimated that in 2022, China will produce more than 60 million tons of waste plastics, of which about 42 million tons will be incinerated or landfilled, and if 50% of them can be chemically cycled, it is equivalent to developing an oilfield of more than 60 million tons;
Li Jinghong introduced that after years of development, the chemical recycling technology route of waste plastics at home and abroad has gradually matured, and has now entered the critical stage of industrialization demonstration and application, becoming a new hot spot for international chemical enterprise competition. According to incomplete statistics, more than 60 chemical companies around the world are researching waste plastic recycling solutions.
In recent years, some petrochemical and environmental protection enterprises in China have actively carried out the research and development and demonstration application of waste plastic chemical recycling technology. Li Jinghong suggested that chemical recycling should be regarded as an important part of building China's plastic pollution control system and energy and resource strategic security, and should be included in the plastic pollution control policy and regulatory system, circular economy planning and waste materials recycling system planning, and as a core means to deal with plastic pollution. Establish a waste plastic recycling system that matches the chemical cycle, and promote the construction of chemical cycle demonstration pilot projects.