The treatment of plastic pollution is a comprehensive task. Comprehensive judgment should be made from the source design to the back-end application, which is a system engineering.
It is necessary to advocate the extensive cooperation of the whole chain and the whole life cycle, understand the plastic logistics from the whole life cycle, including the production and processing industries, as well as the downstream suppliers and recycling industries, and link the whole chain to form a closed-loop management.
With the continuous increase of environmental protection policies, the problem of plastic pollution has been put on the agenda again.
A few days ago, Hainan, Beijing, Shandong, Henan and other provinces (cities) have issued an updated version of the "plastic restriction order", setting out the detailed scope and time limit.
In fact, at the beginning of this year, the national development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of ecological environment issued the opinions on Further Strengthening the treatment of plastic pollution, which proposed that by the end of 2020, the production, sales and use of some plastic products should be banned and restricted in some areas; By 2022, the proportion of recycling and energy utilization of plastic wastes will increase significantly.
In this context, many chemical giants have begun to lay out plastic recycling business. In the view of many people in the industry, the plastic recycling economy will usher in a "tuyere".
The overall recovery rate of waste plastics is 30%
China is a large country in the production and use of plastics. In the face of huge pressure of plastic pollution, the State Council and various ministries and commissions have taken a number of policies and actions in the past decade. For example, the "plastic ban order" issued by the State Council in 2008, the "action plan for prevention and control of soil pollution" in 2012, the gradual prohibition of the import of waste plastics from 2017, the construction of waste free cities in 2018, the domestic garbage classification action in 2019, and the "opinions on Further Strengthening the treatment of plastic pollution" in 2020 have all made specific provisions on plastic problems.
It is understood that the current disposal methods of waste plastics include physical recovery, chemical recovery, incineration, landfill and abandonment. Landfill and abandonment will cause great pollution to water and soil. According to the data from China's recycled plastics industry development report (2019-2020), in 2019, China produced 63 million tons of waste plastics, of which 2016 million tons were buried, accounting for 32%; The incineration capacity was 19.53 million tons, accounting for 31%; The abandoned amount was 4.41 million tons, accounting for 7%; The recycling volume was 18.9 million tons, an increase of 600000 tons, an increase of 3.3%, compared with 18.3 million tons in 2018. The overall recycling rate of waste plastics was 30%.
"Plastic is a very good thing and is a very important product of human life and civilization. In the treatment of waste plastic, we must first reduce the amount of waste plastic, and use it less or less where it can not be used, and then consider comprehensive recycling and reuse." Wang Yonggang, President of the recycled plastics branch of the China material recycling association, said, "China has done better than other countries in the world in the recycling of waste plastics. We have decades of accumulated experience in recycling. In the past, we imported a large number of waste plastics for processing and treatment. At the application end, we also have a very wide range of recycled plastics applications."
In the view of Pang Guanglian, Deputy Secretary General of China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation, the treatment of plastic problems cannot be blindly prohibited, and scientific guidance is needed. "At present, more than 13% of China's crude oil is used to produce polyolefin and other plastic related products, and the function of crude oil as raw material of products is increasing. In the future, more and more oil will be used to produce plastics, which is expected to reach 20% by 2025. Therefore, the petrochemical industry needs to take active actions to jointly promote the comprehensive treatment of plastic wastes in China."
Chemical recovery becomes a new direction of investment
At present, there are mainly physical recovery and chemical recovery methods for plastics. Physical recovery and regeneration is a method actively advocated and widely adopted. However, at present, it is mainly trapped in the recovery and sorting process, with small recovery income, high sorting difficulty and high cost.
"The types of waste plastics produced in life are particularly complex, and the physical recovery is particularly difficult, and it is easy to cause secondary pollution. For example, there is a lot of oil on such things as lunch boxes. If the front-end classification is not good, and the back-end processing is not necessarily better than incineration in terms of environmental benefits. Therefore, not all waste plastics are suitable for physical recovery." Wang Yonggang said, "in addition, at present, most of the physically recycled plastics can only be degraded and utilized, and the utilization rate is not high."
In the opinion of many interviewees, compared with physical recycling, chemical recycling will become a new direction of plastic recycling economy.
"Chemical recovery is the best way of recovery. It can ensure the full utilization of plastics by converting them into monomers through high-temperature catalysis and cracking and then re using them as raw materials to produce products." Pang Guanglian said, "chemical recycling and chemical recovery are definitely a development direction in the future, but the technology is not mature at present, and its economy needs to be explored. The cost and investment are relatively high."
At present, many international chemical giants have begun to lay out the field of chemical recycling of waste plastics. It is reported that BASF is cooperating with recenso, a German company, to produce raw polymers using the latter's raw oil. Recenso has developed a process for converting mixed plastic fractions into processing oil, using a combination of heat, catalyst and physical force to crack hydrocarbons.
Comprehensive management of the whole chain is required
In the view of many interviewees, waste plastic treatment is a systematic project, which requires extensive cooperation throughout the life cycle.
"The treatment of plastic pollution is a comprehensive task. Comprehensive judgment should be made from the source design to the back-end application. It is a systematic project." Wang Yonggang said, "for example, when designing plastic products, we should consider their recyclability and recyclability, and use materials that can be widely used. We can't use some plastics that are difficult to recycle in order to reduce costs. Now some plastic bags have recyclable labels, so we can only say that they can be recycled, but it is difficult to achieve easy recycling."
"We should advocate extensive cooperation in the whole chain and the whole life cycle, understand the plastic logistics from the whole life cycle, including the production, processing industry, downstream suppliers and recycling industry, and link the whole chain to form a closed-loop management." Pang Guanglian said.
"Although the state classifies plastic recycling as an emerging industry, the industry used to give people the impression that it was a small waste, which made it difficult for the project to be implemented locally. The waste plastic industry is the foundation of the metabolism of the whole society. Like the sewage treatment plants, garbage treatment plants and public toilets in large cities, the society needs to be discharged. Without these things, it is impossible to support the development of society. Therefore, this industry cannot be regarded as a work Industry system, but service system. First of all, from the perspective of industry positioning, the plastic recycling function of each place should be completed; Secondly, we need leading enterprises to drive the overall development of the industry in a good direction; In addition, we need to optimize the industrial chain, let the upstream and downstream industrial chains work together, and do a good job in industry integration, integration and upgrading. " Wang Yonggang added.
