Promote the management and high-value utilization of marine plastics
In recent years, in response to the increasingly prominent pollution of marine plastic waste and the governance dilemma of difficulty in collection, disposal, and supervision, top-level design has been strengthened at the national level. The newly revised "Marine Environmental Protection Law of the People's Republic of China" will be implemented since January 1, 2024. It clearly stipulates that the country will implement a marine environmental supervision and management system that coordinates land and sea and regional linkage, and continuously strengthen the prevention and control of marine waste. At the same time, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and other departments have coordinated and coordinated to issue relevant management policies and deploy a number of measures to further promote the supervision and management of marine plastic waste, carry out comprehensive management of key sea areas, and make phased progress in the management of marine waste.
As the main force in the management of marine plastic waste, my country's coastal cities are exploring new paths to promote high-quality regional economic development through high-level protection of the marine ecological environment, and constantly establishing and improving long-term mechanisms for the prevention and control of marine plastic waste. A more typical example is the "blue cycle" model of Zhejiang Province, which has carried out vivid practices and innovations in the digital management of marine garbage and the recycling of marine plastics, achieving the promotion of "common prosperity" by "ecological beauty." This model won the 2023 United Nations "Champions of the Earth Award". It has blazed a new path for marine plastic pollution control based on China's practice and global perspective, and provided a Chinese solution for the world's marine ecological protection and high-quality development of the marine economy.
Marine plastic waste management path
Figure 1: Measures for the entire life cycle of marine plastic waste
Marine garbage pollution problem
Plastic waste is the main type of marine waste. The 2021 United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) report shows that there are currently approximately 75 million tons to 199 million tons of plastic waste in the ocean, accounting for approximately 85% of the total weight of marine waste. The "2021 China Marine Ecological Environment Status Bulletin" points out that among sea floating garbage, beach garbage and seabed garbage, plastic waste accounts for 92.9%, 75.9% and 83.3% respectively. Therefore, solving marine plastic waste is the core of marine waste management.
Since 2011, UNEP has listed marine plastic waste as a key issue and encouraged countries to take measures to effectively deal with marine plastic waste. Marine plastic pollution has become a major global environmental problem alongside climate change and biodiversity loss. Countries and regions are promoting cooperation in marine waste management in accordance with international conventions.
Full life cycle management of marine plastics
Marine plastic management is the core of the prevention and control of marine garbage pollution. Marine plastic involves many links such as production, circulation, and consumption. The main ways to control its pollution are to avoid the generation of plastic waste, strengthen recycling and reuse, reduce environmental leaks, and salvage operations for marine plastic waste.
The main factor in the formation of plastic pollution is that the waste disposal and disposal process is out of control, and the role of plastic has transformed from plastic products to plastic waste and then to plastic waste pollution. Therefore, marine plastic control measures follow source reduction and process management, and achieve the full life cycle of plastic waste through production and consumption reduction, disposal process management and recycling, supplemented by the idea of sea prevention and control and maritime salvage. Research data shows that land-based inputs are the main source of global marine plastic waste, accounting for about 80%. Compared with the requirements for technology, capital and regional cooperation mechanisms for end-of-end governance, reducing plastic waste and the utilization of plastic closed-loop resources throughout the life cycle from the source is an effective way to solve the problem of marine plastic waste.
Marine plastic pollution control policy
In the entire chain of marine plastic waste management measures, avoiding the generation of plastic waste, strengthening recycling, and achieving a source reduction of land-based waste are effective means to reduce marine plastic waste. my country attaches great importance to the issue of marine garbage and plastic pollution. In recent years, various departments have actively carried out plastic pollution control based on their own responsibilities, continuously improved the entire chain control system for plastic pollution, refined the source reduction of plastic use, and cleaned, recycled plastic waste., Scientific disposal and other work.
The National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and other departments have coordinated and coordinated to issue a series of management policy documents, deploy multiple task measures, and further promote plastic pollution control. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs has taken the lead in issuing relevant institutional documents from the aspects of controlling agricultural plastic waste, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development from plastic recycling and classification, and the Ministry of Commerce from plastic circulation management. From "Prohibition/Plastic Restriction Order" and "River Chief System" to "Prohibition of the Entry of Foreign Waste","Domestic Waste Classification System","Circular Development Leading Action", to carrying out testing and evaluation of marine garbage and microplastics, and the construction of "waste-free cities". A series of measures and governance actions have been effective in reducing land-based waste pollution. It has played an important role in controlling plastic waste into the sea, and the effectiveness of comprehensive management of marine plastic waste has been continuously improved.
At the same time, we will continue to deepen the cleanup and rectification of marine plastic waste, carry out rural garbage cleanup and rectification, and carry out garbage removal from rivers and beaches. During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, my country included marine garbage control as a key task into the "Action Plan for the Comprehensive Management of Key Sea Areas","14th Five-Year Plan for Marine Ecological Environmental Protection","14th Five-Year Plan for Plastic Pollution Control", etc. Starting from 2022, my country has implemented special clean-up operations in 11 key bays such as Beidaihe Bay and Jiaozhou Bay to clean up all types of shoreline and sea-floating garbage, providing high-quality environmental protection for people to play in the sea.
Plastic recycling economy promotes marine plastic management
The reuse of marine plastics and the development of plastic circular economy can effectively reduce the entry of plastics into the waste stream. However, for a long time, the plastic producer responsibility extension system has not been perfect, the lack of low-cost, high-recovery waste plastic recycling technology, and the lack of effective marine plastic cleaning operation models and practices have restricted the development of the marine plastic recycling industry.
In recent years, resource recycling has ushered in a new era. Unlike previous relatively low-value recycling, marine plastic recycling and high-quality plastic recycling have accelerated, and a green economic system is being built. my country's coastal areas are actively exploring the management of marine plastic waste. The more typical example is the "blue cycle" model in Zhejiang Province. Recently, the author's team inspected the "blue cycle" model of "from sea to shelf". This model has achieved remarkable results in the pilot stage and provided Zhejiang practice for the recycling of marine plastics.
New model for marine plastic management and high-value utilization
Figure 2: Schematic diagram of the entire traceability process of marine plastics (taking a phone case at the survey site as an example)
In recent years, Zhejiang Province has given full play to the advantages of digital reform results, focused on pain points such as difficulty in collecting marine plastics, difficulty in using high-value, and difficulty in multi-faceted co-treatment, and innovated the "blue cycle" model of marine plastics management and high-value utilization. Enterprises and the government have worked together to organize coastal fishermen to recycle marine plastic waste. The recycled waste plastics are uniformly transported to enterprises for processing and recycling, producing high-value added products such as clothing and phone case, and feeding back product profits to fishermen.
At the same time, digital systems are used to build a closed-loop marine pollutant management platform, a value-added marine plastics carbon trading platform and a marine plastics digital traceability system (hereinafter referred to as two platforms and one system) to transform the company's ESG (environmental, social, governance) responsibilities into market value, thus transforming it into a driving force for marine environmental protection and providing Zhejiang solutions for improving marine plastic pollution control.
Build a recycling and value-added utilization system to "turn waste into treasure" of marine plastics
The "blue cycle" model solves three "where come from" problems, namely,"where do people come from, where do money come from, and where do things come from", changing the traditional pollution control model in which finance provides funds. The government has changed from a controller to a service provider and a regulator, fishermen have changed from environmental polluters to ecological protectors, people in need have changed from vulnerable collectors to industry beneficiaries, and the public has changed from consumers to environmental participants, achieving the dual integration of pollution reduction and carbon reduction and common prosperity.
Use market-based means to solve the driving force of collectors and solve the problem of "no one collects" marine plastic waste; use visual traceability technology to carry out international certification and carbon footprint assessment and certification of marine plastics to solve the problem of "low value" in marine plastic recycling; By setting up a "Blue Co-Prosperity Fund", high-value premium benefits from marine plastics and carbon emission reduction trading dividends are fed back to fishermen participating in marine plastic recycling, turning governance difficulties into dividends for co-prosperity and solving the problem of sustainability of the recycling model.
Apply digital traceability technology to solve the trust crisis of marine plastics
The "blue cycle" model consists of offshore intelligent storage and storage, recycling and granulation, international certification, product manufacturing and other departments and enterprises to form an industrial chain alliance. By applying full-process visual traceability technology, it builds a reliable source, controllable process, visible regeneration, and traceability visual credit system. The collection trajectory is supervised through the electronic fence function to accurately manage source collection to ensure the authenticity of marine plastics originating from standard areas and sources. Use visualization technology and combine online and offline to ensure that process operations are truly recorded. From three-dimensional collection, intelligent storage, centralized transfer, standardized disposal, and standard regeneration, visual traceability of the entire process is realized. Scanning the QR code can obtain the entire process evidence chain. At the same time, carbon labeling and carbon footprint calibration are carried out for the entire life cycle of marine plastics, and certified by international authoritative organizations to improve the environmental competitiveness of plastic export enterprises and fill the gap in my country's credible marine plastics supply.
Explore the value-added model of marine plastics carbon trading to achieve "ecological beauty" and promote "common prosperity"
Through the international "Plastic Waste Reduction Plan" mechanism, marine plastic recycling will be developed into tradable "plastic credits" and sold to international leading companies to meet corporate ESG responsibilities and carbon emission reduction needs, and change the low-value utilization path of traditional recycled plastics. Internationally certified Haisu particles have a greater appreciation compared with traditional recycled plastics. At the same time, extract the high-value utilization income of marine plastics and credit transaction premiums, establish a "blue ecological co-wealth fund", distribute the fund's income twice, implement it to participants in the industrial chain, focus on collecting personnel, fully mobilize all parties Participate in governance enthusiasm, build an industrial value redistribution system, while achieving ecological wealth, promote group wealth and drive industrial wealth.
Problems and countermeasures in marine plastic management
In order to further strengthen the improvement of the marine plastic recycling model and the industrialization promotion, it is necessary to focus on solving the following issues:
First, in terms of certification standards and specifications, the construction of a traceability certification standard system for marine plastics is the key and core of recycling. There are currently no relevant certification standards in my country.
Second, in terms of the marine plastics industry policy system, developing and expanding the marine plastics industry and realizing high-value utilization of marine plastics are the basis for feeding back the collection of marine plastic waste and supporting marine pollution control. Compared with other countries, my country's marine plastics industry is still in its infancy. stage.
Third, in terms of ship garbage and seabed plastics management, there is currently a lack of supervision of plastic waste generated by activities such as maritime ship transportation. In the near term, the high-value premium of marine plastics can cover the collection and reuse of plastic waste from coastal sanitation and abandoned fishing gear along the coast, but it is far from covering the cost of collecting garbage from ships or even collecting garbage on the seabed.
In this regard, the author puts forward the following countermeasures and suggestions:
The first is to encourage pilots to try first. It is recommended to support Zhejiang and qualified regions to carry out national pilots of new marine plastic pollution control models, strengthen policy guidance and special fund investment, support the establishment of a high-level marine plastics industry chain, and create a marine ecological environment governance that promotes high-quality industrial development and common prosperity for the people. New model.
The second is to formulate relevant standards and specifications. It is recommended that on the basis of Zhejiang's exploration and practice, standards and specifications related to marine plastics should be formulated and promulgated as soon as possible, a leading traceability certification system should be established, and my country's voice in the field of international marine plastics certification. At the same time, we will comprehensively improve the level of industrial standardization and standardization to lay a solid standard foundation for the promotion and application of new models such as "blue cycle" across the country.
The third is to build an industrial policy system. It is recommended to speed up the establishment and improvement of a policy system to support the development of the marine plastics industry. On the basis of the support policy for the land recycled plastics industry, we should further tilt the taxation, export, and scientific research policies of marine plastics industry enterprises, and strengthen government mandatory procurement guidance and lead marine plastics products. Consumption and optimization of project land security, etc., cultivate the marine plastics market and create an internationally competitive marine plastics industry.
The fourth is to strengthen the management of ship waste. Strengthen the collection and management of garbage from ships at sea, and consider the high cost of maritime law enforcement management, it is recommended to establish a reporting system for ship waste production plans at sea to force crew members and fishermen to consciously bring back ship garbage according to the waste production coefficient.
The fifth is to strengthen international exchanges and cooperation. Extensively participate in international exchanges and cooperation in the fields of recycling and utilization of marine plastic resources, industrial innovation and development, formulate environmental protection policies, industrial development policies and international trade policies for the plastic green economy that are compatible with the international community, and carry out marine plans and actions coordinated with the international community. Use China's practice and global perspective to find a new path for marine plastic pollution control, and contribute Chinese wisdom to the world's marine ecological protection and marine economic development.
(Author's units: Wang Jiaojiao, Yang Xiaoming, Wei Zhengzheng, Wang Bin, Environmental and Economic Policy Research Center of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Yang Xiaoming is the corresponding author of this article)
[Project source: Marine Ecological Environment Protection Supervision and Management Project of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (22110302003001)]
