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On January 1, 2021, the "plastic ban" came into effect nationwide.
With the promotion of "garbage classification" and the improvement of people's awareness of environmental protection, "biodegradable" plastic has been favored more and more, and many enterprises have also made "biodegradable" and "environmental protection" signs.
Instead, biodegradable plastics may not be all that environmentally friendly, according to the research team of Cao Shuyan, an associate professor at the Beijing Institute of Petrochemical Technology.
It usually takes hundreds or even thousands of years for plastic to break down in the natural environment. In terms of environmental capacity, plastic has become a super waste.
"By the end of 2019, China's cumulative production of primary forms of plastics had reached 1 billion tons.
As a large plastic consumer highly dependent on imported petroleum resources, China is in a more urgent situation than most countries in the world when it comes to 'plastic control' -- regulating the production, consumption and back-end processing and disposal of plastics."
"Cao Shuyan said.
Biodegradable plastic is not the same as environmentally friendly plastic
In January 2020, the National Development and Reform Commission and the ecological environment jointly issued "on further strengthening the opinions of the plastic pollution control" (hereinafter referred to as "opinions"), the provisions of "by the end of 2020, the municipality directly under the central government, provincial capitals, cities under separate state planning city proper department stores, supermarkets, drug stores, bookstores and other places and food package delivery service and all kinds of exhibition activities,
Prohibit the use of non-degradable plastic bags, market regulations and restrictions on the use of non-degradable plastic bags ". "By the end of 2020, the use of non-degradable disposable plastic straws will be banned in the catering industry nationwide;
The use of non-degradable disposable plastic tableware is prohibited in the catering service in the built-up areas of prefecture-level cities and scenic spots.
Suggestions also put forward that in shopping malls, supermarkets, pharmacies, bookstores and other places, promote the use of environmentally friendly cloth bags, paper bags and other non-plastic products and biodegradable shopping bags, encourage the establishment of self-service, intelligent delivery devices to facilitate people's lives.
Promote the use of fresh product degradable packaging film (bag).
We will establish a centralized purchase and sale system for shopping bags in markets.
Promote the use of biology-based products such as straw-coated meal boxes and biodegradable plastic bags that meet performance and food safety requirements in the field of food and beverage takeout.
Degradable mulching film should be extended in key areas by combining agronomic measures.
"In plastics, 'biodegradable' is not synonymous with being resource-efficient and environmentally friendly.
"The intrinsic carbon age of plastics, their position in the product chain, and the way they are disposed of at the back end, together determine their overall environmental performance throughout their life cycle."
Cao Shuyan said at the online press conference of China's total oil consumption control and policy research project on December 28, 2020.
Cao Shuyan's research group released the report "Environmental Footprint Assessment of Plastic in China" at the meeting.
At present, the plastics on the market include petroleum-based non-biodegradable plastics, i.e. traditional plastics such as PE, PP, PET, etc., biologically based non-biodegradable plastics such as biologically based -PE, biologically based -PP, biologically based -PET, etc., petroleum-based biodegradable plastics such as PBAT/PBS, PCL, etc., and biologically based biodegradable plastics such as PLA, PHA, etc.
According to Cao Shuyan, the energy demand for each ton of degradable resin is basically the same as that of traditional resin in the process of processing and making plastic products downstream.
However, the use of plastic is functionally determined.
In the case of the same functional units, the material demand of the new generation of plastic products is generally higher than that of traditional plastic products. For example, the 1.5-2kg PBS plastic pallet is equivalent to the 1kg PP plastic pallet in function.
In functional units, the environmental impact of PBAT plastics and PBS plastics is generally greater.
"Especially when the end treatment is incineration, the alternative is not able to achieve the policy expectation of 'reduction', but also pays higher environmental costs."
"Cao Shuyan said.
According to a study by Song Guojun, a professor at the School of Environmental Sciences at Renmin University of China, the social cost of the whole process of domestic waste incineration in Beijing was 2,253 yuan/ton (2017).
Among them, the cost of collection, transportation and transshipment is 1,164 yuan/ton, the emission from incineration is 2 British carcinogenic health loss is 764 yuan/ton, and the total subsidy for incineration is 325 yuan/ton.
The social cost of the whole process of landfill is also very high, which is 1530 yuan/ton (2012), of which collection cost accounts for about 60%.
"The public's payment for green purchases [of biodegradable plastics] to protect the environment has become 'compensation' for damage to the environment."
"Cao Shuyan said.
There is a binary opposition in the current plastic control policy
Incineration is becoming the mainstream means of "reducing, recycling and making household waste harmless" in China.
According to the draft plan for the construction of harmless disposal facilities for urban household waste during the 13th Five-Year Plan period, the proportion of household waste incineration capacity to harmless disposal capacity will reach 50 percent by 2020.
In 2017, a hydropower planning & design institute new Xie Hongwen, director of the department of energy in the new era of urban living garbage incineration power generation innovation development peak BBS and urban living garbage incineration power generation industry development report 2017 conference on BBS asserted that by 2035, 75% of the nation's garbage pickup (410 million tons) will be used for burning.
According to Cao Shuyan's research group, 38% of China's plastic consumption was used for packaging in 2017 and 2018.
Many packages, such as express bags, take-out bags, milk tea and other ready-made ready-made soft drink packaging cups, food bags, shopping bags, daily chemical packaging bags, straws and so on, are disposable items.
"In big cities like Beijing, there is no distinction between biodegradable and non-biodegradable plastics used in our daily life. They are basically classified as' other waste 'of domestic waste, and other waste in big cities is mainly incinerated."
Beijing environmental protection science research institute researcher chun-lan liu said, "now provide an updated version of" banned plastic limit "policy, is in the field of conditional place, the use of biodegradable plastic alternatives to traditional plastic, but currently on the market of biodegradable plastics is primarily fossil base, if in post-processing way is burning, its environmental impact, especially carbon emissions, not only did not decrease,
It has increased."
The Opinions put forward that to be recyclable, easy to recycle, degradable as the guide, research and development of performance standards, green environmental protection, economical and applicable plastic products and alternative products, to foster a new business form and new model conducive to standard recycling and recycling, reduce plastic pollution.
According to Cao Shuyan, China's current policy objectives for plastic control and control are obviously dualistic, and there is an obvious conflict between the source control which is mainly degradable and the actual management which is mainly incineration.
"If we don't reform the plastic waste sorting mechanism, the fate of plastic after use will be incineration."
Cao Shuyan believes that incineration of biodegradable plastics will not fundamentally solve the problem of plastic pollution.
Yang Fuqiang, a senior adviser at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), pointed out that plastic consumption has not only caused serious environmental pollution in China, but also accelerated the growth of oil consumption.
In the future, China will gradually ban the consumption of plastic products that cause serious environmental pollution and are difficult to recycle, and impose "restrictions" and "substitutes" on the consumption of recyclable plastics and plastics for daily necessities.
Efforts should be made at both the production and consumption ends to establish a list of the types of plastics that are prohibited.
Cao Shuyan suggested pushing the plastic economy from an open-loop linear model to a closed-loop circular model.
To do this, we need to work on three fronts.
"First, promoting 100% recycling of easily recyclable plastics is the key to reducing plastic waste and improving recycling.
This requires innovation in the concept and mechanism of plastic classification and household waste classification management, as well as strengthening of infrastructure and supervision capacity."
Cao Shuyan believes that research should be carried out to reclassify household plastic consumption.
One category is Recyclable and generual plastics (R&G, Recyclable and generual). For this type of plastics, the management method is a combination of "restriction" and "substitution".
The other category is Difficult to recycle and non-generual plastics (D&N, Difficult to recycle and non-generual). For this type of plastics, the core of management thinking is the combination of "prohibition", "restriction" and "substitution".
"The second is to improve the recycling of plastics in the economic system, one is to improve the recyclability of plastics, and the second is to reduce the dependence of plastic feedstock on exhaustive resources, especially oil."
"Third, plastic needs to be reduced and developed in a balanced way.
"Balanced growth" refers to the economic system demand for plastic raw material from its 100% recycled plastic products, although due to product use demand, a small amount of plastic raw materials from renewable natural resources, however, after using the surplus of that part of the recycling remanufacturing raw materials sufficient to compensate the consumption of plastic raw materials from renewable resources."
The research group of Cao Shuyan shows that through the management of the whole plastic industry chain, during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, China can reduce the consumption of traditional plastics by 11.8 million tons, avoid the incineration of plastics by 6.2 million tons, save 25 million tons of raw material oil, which is about 5% more than the annual crude oil production of Changqing Oilfield in 2018, and reduce the carbon dioxide by 110 million tons.
That's equivalent to the annual carbon emissions of 35 500MW (megawatt) coal-fired power plants.
"The total social benefit of China's 'plastic reduction' in the 14th Five-Year Plan period is 50.7 billion yuan, which can meet the construction and operation of the chemical recycling process of 6.2 million tons of plastic incinerated in reduced quantities."
"Cao Shuyan said.
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