Recycling of used plastic products is a long way

The data show that China's annual output of plastic products is 25 million tons. If calculated by the 20% recyclable amount, about 5 million tons of waste plastics should be recycled in one year, and the actual amount recovered last year was only 2 million tons. Recycling of used plastic products takes a long way to go. With the development of China's plastics industry and the increase in consumption levels, plastic products have penetrated into every corner of the society, from industrial and agricultural production to clothing, food, housing and transportation, and plastic products are everywhere, resulting in waste plastics. Students have brought serious environmental and resource problems. Sufficient source of the market to strengthen last year China's plastic production (above-scale industrial enterprises) reached 16.51 million tons, if you count small businesses, the conservative estimate of more than 25 million tons, this year has maintained a strong momentum of growth. If 20% of plastic products are recyclable plastics, then China's recyclable plastic waste will be about 4 million to 5 million tons per year. This does not include scraps and unused residues left in the company's production. Secondary plastic products recycling. According to the “Tenth Five-Year Plan for Recycling of Renewable Resources,” it is proposed that by 2005 domestic waste plastics should be recycled from 5 million to 6 million tons. In fact, only about 2 million tons of waste plastics were recycled in China last year. As the price of recycled plastic pellets is only RMB 3,500 to RMB 6,300/tonne (new materials are generally as high as RMB 8,000 to RMB 10,000/ton), there is a clear cost advantage, and therefore domestic demand is very large. China has imported it from abroad since 2000. Waste plastics are more than 2 million tons, and increase at a rate of more than 10% per year. It can be seen that there is still a large gap in the demand for used recycled plastics among domestic plastic product manufacturers. There is a huge market for the recycling of waste plastics in China, especially the recent soaring of plastic raw materials, and the market’s demand for recycled materials has further strengthened.

Many issues can not be ignored Although the market conditions are good, but the strong demand for renewable materials production relative to the market is very weak.

First of all, the recovery classification system is not sound. For example, the leftovers and defectives produced by companies in the production process are plastics that can be easily separated and recycled. However, there are problems in the classification and recycling of plastic products for daily use. On the one hand, the people's awareness of environmental protection is not strong, and the concept of plastic recycling has not yet been recognized by the public. The classification and recycling of different plastics have not yet been formed. On the other hand, the classification of plastic products by raw materials is not obvious. The State stipulates that plastic products should mark classification and recovery marks in prominent areas, but most products are not marked, causing inconvenience for the classification during recycling. Recycling of some emerging plastic products has not attracted everyone's attention, such as the recycling of optical discs, home appliances plastics, automotive plastics has yet to be refined. Second, there is a large number of small businesses in the industry, and recycled plastics often do not play an advantage. Plastics have a low recovery rate. For example, polyester recycled pellets for making beverage bottles are high-grade recycled materials, but they are often processed by the textile manufacturing industry into fibers with lower value of use. In fact, PET bottles can be used as higher-grade recycled materials. Value products can also be recycled for two or three times after being used as household goods or industrial supplies. This is also not directly related to the strict management of China's plastics classification. In addition, the state has not given sufficient support to the waste plastic recycling and processing industry. Due to the small-scale operation of waste plastic recycling companies and the backwardness of process technology and the lack of leading enterprises, despite the introduction of some preferential policies by the state to encourage and support the development of the plastic recycling industry, the vast majority of waste plastic recycling and processing companies have no basic conditions for introduction. The development of new technologies, new processes, new equipment, and low technological content and added value have hindered the development of the recycling of waste plastics. In addition, the state-owned plastic recycling companies face the problem of heavy burden and poor market competitiveness, and a considerable number of enterprises suffer losses. These have led to a long period of time when the waste plastic recycling industry in China has been at a low level.

Sound mechanism for development

In response to the problems of waste plastic recycling companies, the China Plastics Processing Industry Association has made several suggestions to promote the development of the industry. The first is to establish a sound legal mechanism and use laws and regulations to implement recycling. In fact, in order to facilitate recycling, as early as 1996, China issued the standard for GB/T16288-1966 'Recycling mark of plastic packaging products' (this standard also applies to other plastic products), but due to the lack of specific penalties and the implementation of supervision agencies, The implementation is not good, and many plastic products are not marked with classification marks during the production process. Another is the use of sound plastic recycling materials classification system, the use of recycled materials to be clear. According to the German law, disposable beverage packaging must be recycled with higher value and cannot be directly used for low-value fiber production. There are no relevant laws and regulations in China so that plastic products with higher recovery value can be obtained. Less than the corresponding recovery value, resulting in a certain degree of waste. Therefore, establishing and improving relevant laws and regulations in the future is the primary task of the plastic recycling industry. The second is to establish large-scale demonstration companies or demonstration bases. In order to promote the improvement of the overall level of China's plastic recycling industry. Thirdly, enterprises should actively explore the market for the use of waste plastics recycled materials, upgrade the renewable materials from the perspective of low-value fiber and plastic bags, and develop products with higher production value and profits, such as plastic-wood composite materials. In short, the disposal of plastic waste is not simply a technical issue. It requires the establishment of a treatment system for the entire society and the establishment of a scientific and reasonable data recovery technology system. It also requires the support of the government and the attention of the production department, and all links should be coordinated with each other. Formulate relevant regulations to ensure it.