How to solve the problem of waste plastic white pollution has been a difficult problem.
Since the implementation of garbage classification in Shanghai on July 1, 2019, garbage classification has been continuously promoted in all cities across the country. However, for degradable plastics, it is difficult to distinguish the true and false, to classify and collect, and to dispose of them separately.
How to solve this problem is very urgent.
Degradable plastic does not disappear instantly, the so-called degradation, refers to the industrial composting conditions, more than 90% of the components can be converted into carbon dioxide and water in six months.
The European Union plastics Association, EUBP, is responding by getting industrial compostable plastics into specialist treatment plants by the end of 2023.
Whether industrial composting plastic treatment plants can be widely established in China's municipal waste management is worth discussing.
Compostable plastics belong to a group of biodegradable plastics that can be broken down at lower temperatures in home composting systems or at higher temperatures in industrial composting facilities but are not completely degradable under natural environmental conditions.
Main features of compost plastic:
First, it is difficult to classify and collect ordinary plastics.
Second, the compost plastic and ordinary plastic can only be disposed of in the same landfill and incinerator, but There is no separate disposal of compost plastic disposable compost treatment plant in China.
Third, the price of compost plastic is higher than ordinary plastic 3-4 times.
The acceptable cost of alternative products should not be ignored. Compost plastic alone still faces many problems. The guidance of national biodegradable plastic standards should highlight the recycling of waste plastic, the closed cycle of plastic from use to waste, and the degradation of plastic on the basis of the natural cycle.
Control indicators for quality assurance, supervision, and enforcement need to be established for qualified alternatives that are degraded on-demand in the natural environment
During the two sessions, Li Jinghong, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and professor of chemistry at Tsinghua University, called for a top-level design for prevention and control of plastic pollution and launched a comprehensive rectification campaign to build a world-class green plastic supply chain. He believes that there are problems such as the insufficient supply of recycled plastics, slow commercialization of ecological design, and low level of recycling of plastic waste.
Strengthen the main position of recycling, increase policy support for leading enterprises, Li Jinghong suggested promoting the construction of regulations and standards for the plastic industry chain, highlighting the importance of ecological design; We will accelerate the implementation of the extended producer responsibility system, clearly define the responsibilities of all parties, and use ecological design guidelines to standardize and guide brand owners to adopt the ecological design, implement the concept of full life cycle management, establish a quantifiable and traceable evaluation system and labeling system for green plastic products, so as to promote mutual understanding and cooperation between the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain.
Academician Li Jinghong proposed ecological design guidelines and standards and raise the threshold of ecological design is the prescription to control the chaos; Instead of solving the ecological problem of white pollution with degradable plastics, we should not simply deal with material selection, but instead use ecological design, environmental benefit check, full life cycle assessment, and ecological effect system evaluation based on data.
The most important thing in ecological design is "one City, one policy"
From the city garbage classification ability and conditions, and final disposal is focused on the plastic pollution ecological problems, real to control white pollution rise to the height of ecological civilization, put an end to formalism and waste of taxpayers' money, some suitable for the degradation of the city characteristics, the good quality cost can accept plastic substitute products and effective governance model of plastic pollution.
For example, the HKSAR Government determines the degradation standard.
First of all, determine the direction of waste disposal (incineration and landfill only), and then weigh the comprehensive social and environmental benefits, for disposable plastic products, not easy to recycle and not easy to recycle, develop environmental degradation policies that meet international standards.
The HKSAR Government has no restrictions on the use of degradable plastics as long as different materials or technologies meet the standards.
This garbage bag production technology has been used in Hong Kong for many years. Combined with green mark certification, continuous environmental education, and improved regulations, the results have been satisfactory, and no litter has been encouraged by the use of natural degradation technology.
The whole chain of plastic pollution control should be wide open doors
The problems of different production links, different accepting environments, and different pollution reduction and carbon reduction targets are solved respectively.
As a branch of the plastic chemical industry, degradable plastics are considered more from the perspective of material innovation, but less from the perspective of plastic revolution and ecological assessment. We need to expand our vision and integrate technologies to truly reduce the cost of alternative products, reduce carbon consumption, and improve the efficiency of resource utilization and ecological assessment.
It is necessary to provide equal conditions for authenticating and evaluating the quality of products of various alternative routes.
The objective world needs more ecological new plastic products category, need to meet in the natural environment such as field environment, different degradation of demand, such as the Marine environment need to microplastic damage and plastic residue from the top of the mountain to the Marine ecological impact can effectively control, prevention and control of the real white pollution level, rise to protect the public health of precise plastic residue pollution prevention and control.
We call for the realization of the green revolution in the traditional plastics industry to break the restriction of a single material, explore the evolution evaluation of the natural environment, and fully draw on the international green product verification standards, so as to form a series of innovative achievements of China's ecological plastics that reflect the requirements of ecological civilization.
At present, the ecological plastics industry is on the road to innovation and practical verification. We look forward to the continuous innovation and development of the ecological plastics industry in practice and contribute to beautiful China and the beautiful city.
