Chemical recycling of waste plastics can turn "white pollution" into "white oil field"

This year, April 22 marks the 55th Earth Day. The National Development and Reform Commission's Institute of Economic System and Management released the "Comprehensive Research Report on the Chemical Cycle of Waste Plastics" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report") released on the 22nd, showing that the chemical cycle of waste plastics is becoming a new direction for plastic pollution control at home and abroad, which can turn "white pollution" into "white oilfield".

Zhang Deyuan, the main author of the report and director of the Circular Economy Research Office of the Institute of Economic System and Management of the National Development and Reform Commission, introduced that chemical recycling and physical recycling are the two major paths for the recycling of waste plastic materials. Chemical recycling refers to the process of using waste plastics as raw materials, using chemical methods to convert them into a certain proportion of plastic monomers and other chemical components, and further producing plastics and other chemical products.

"From the European Union, Japan and other countries and regions of waste plastic material recycling practice, engineering plastics with good resource value, hollow bottle rigid packaging plastics and other waste plastics can basically be better recycled through physical means, while low-value waste plastics such as flexible packaging and film bags, which account for about 46% of plastic output, are generally disposed of by incineration or landfill. Zhang Deyuan said.

Industry experts said that compared with physical recycling, chemical recycling has a wide range of raw material adaptability, and can centrally recycle low-value waste plastics and composite packaging that cannot be effectively and economically recycled, and even waste plastics stored in landfills or in nature.

Data shows that in 2023, China will produce about 62 million tons of waste plastics, and the recycling volume will be 19 million tons, an increase of 5.6% over 2022. However, like other countries and regions, China is also facing problems such as the difficulty of further improving the recovery rate of materials, and it is urgent to explore chemical recycling pathways.

According to the report, the chemical cycle technology has gradually matured, and the mainstream technology process based on cracking method, depolymerization method and gasification method has been formed.

Zhang Deyuan said that there is an urgent need to clarify the strategic positioning of the chemical recycling of waste plastics, as an important part of the construction of China's plastic pollution control system and energy resources strategic security guarantee, into 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.

At the same time, it is clear that chemical recycling is an important technical route for waste plastic recycling. In terms of industrial layout, the chemical recycling project will be regarded as a comprehensive resource utilization project, and priority will be given to the centralized layout and operation management of the chemical park, and priority will be given to the guarantee of carbon emission indicators, energy consumption indicators and land use indicators.

"In addition, we should also increase the promotion of the construction of chemical cycle demonstration pilot projects, support key enterprises to build new or use existing devices to carry out industrialization demonstrations, and encourage the construction of demonstration projects for the integrated development of upstream and downstream industrial chains. Zhang Deyuan said.