Written by rebecca
Leaving the lab is only the first step
In the past two years, what can make people quit milk tea may not be the best factor, not a health concern, or just a starting point that conforms to the trend of the times and conforms to people's perception of a "good" lifestyle - paper straws.
On New Year's Day 2021, the upgraded "plastic restriction order", known as the strictest in history, was officially implemented, and since then, the nationwide catering industry is no longer allowed to use non-degradable disposable plastic straws.
However, since then, consumers' condemnation of paper straws has continued to this day, and feedback on poor taste and affecting the taste of drinks has emerged one after another.
On the other hand, merchants have not gotten any recent benefits from it, environmentally friendly paper straws mean higher costs and more bad reviews, and PLA degradable material straws with better experience are also difficult to promote in all scenarios due to limiting factors such as applicable temperature.
How long people will have to endure paper straws is unknown.
To some extent, the "straw problem" reflects the dilemma of all walks of life in the transition to an environment-friendly development modelThe forward-looking social policy and consciousness urgently need R&D and the market to make up for it, and there is still a huge gap to be bridged from the production end of environmentally friendly materials to the hands of consumers.
In response to the problem of waste plastics, the industry has roughly two ways to solve the problem: recyclable or degradable.
However, due to the high requirements of material science and technology, the greater difficulty lies in the management of the circular pathway. Looking at the world, at present, the vast majority of plastic products are landfilled or abandoned, a small number are incinerate, and there are even fewer that can be used. On the whole, China's garbage classification market is not sound, plastic products lack the basis for being selected and utilized, and the situation is even worse in rural areas. If we do not change the treatment system of plastic products and even the garbage classification system of the whole society, it is difficult to implement the recycling of plastic products.
As a result, people have to pay more expectations to science and technology - it can replace the performance of conventional plastics without causing environmental pollution, which has become a new topic of material technology in today's era.
In fact, as early as the 90s of the last century, some degradable plastic products have appeared in the Chinese market. Taking plastic bags as an example, polyethylene (PE) was commonly used in the market at that time, but due to the lack of strong policy support and the high cost of artificial degradation (ultraviolet, ozone, thermal oxidation, photooxidation and other treatment technologies are required), the use coverage rate is not wide.
In 2022, Sinopec enterprises in Jiangsu jointly held the "Sinopec in Jiangsu" 2022 Social Responsibility Report Conference, released a promotional video called "Good Solution" for the first time, and launched a new degradable material brand - "Good Solution" (ECORIGIN).
"Understanding" is derived from the idiom "understanding", good at decomposition, and easy to degrade. Its products are fully biodegradable resins, which not only have good ductility, elongation at break, heat resistance and impact resistance, but also have excellent biodegradability, good compatibility with other biodegradable materials, and are suitable for various degradable film bags, agricultural mulch films, disposable tableware, packaging boxes, 3D printing filaments and other fields.
In the composting environment (soil, sandy soil and other natural conditions), it interacts with microorganisms (such as bacteria, molds, algae, etc.), and after about half a year, it can be naturally degraded into carbon dioxide and water, returning to its natural origin.
In 2022, PBAT, a biodegradable material with good understanding, passed the review of the German Institute for Standardization (DIN CERTCO) and obtained the PBAT biodegradable industrial compost certification certificate, indicating that the product meets the regulatory requirements of the European Union and has obtained the "pass" for the export of products to the EU, proposing solutions from China for the development of global green and low-carbon undertakings.
Nowadays, the use of biodegradable plastics has been recognized as one of the most effective** solutions to the "white pollution" of single-use plastics. However, just as the "straw problem" shows in the market, we are more concerned about the core problem that biodegradable materials face outside the laboratoryIn addition to policy-driven, to what extent can biodegradable materials provide space for the industry to reduce costs and improve efficiency?This is a crucial leap in whether new technologies can complete the invisible but huge gap between birth and implementation.
Here, we interviewed the team to talk about the present and future of biodegradable materials with the creators and promoters of technology
The departure of biodegradable materials from the laboratory is only the first step.
Fat Whale: "Good Understanding" is a new brand of Sinopec, why did Sinopec decide to pay attention to the research and development and application of degradable plastics?
Empathetic Team:In view of the increasingly prominent problem of "white pollution", countries around the world have launched a "plastic ban" action, and major developed countries in the West have successively formulated and introduced relevant regulations to restrict the use of non-degradable plastics. The penetration rate of domestic degradable plastics is significantly driven by policies, and the production and sales of biodegradable plastics in China grew slowly before 2019. 2020 is the first year of the popularization of biodegradable plastics in China, and at present, China has formed a national-local multi-level plastic ban policy system, which constitutes a favorable policy for the landing of degradable materials. From the perspective of industry development, in the context of "carbon peak" and "carbon neutrality", in order to reduce carbon emissions, emerging fields such as degradable plastics in the chemical industry are expected to lead the new development of the low-carbon chemical industry.
Fat Whale: After Yizheng Chemical Fiber (a subsidiary of Sinopec) developed biodegradable materials, why did you create a "good solution" brand for it and carry out brand operation?
Empathetic Team:On the market, degradable materials have been applied in many scenarios, such as offline supermarkets, retail and catering, takeaway platforms, communities, etc., and the demand has increased significantly, and there has even been a shortage of supply in previous years. Creating a brand of biodegradable materials is conducive to improving consumer awareness and brand influence, and winning a competitive advantage in the market.
As the world's largest synthetic resin manufacturer, Sinopec officially joined the Alliance to End Plastic Waste (AEPW) in 2019, becoming the first member company in Chinese mainland to explore the path of brand operation of biodegradable materials, and also to open up a new development direction for Sinopec's green and clean image.
Fat Whale: We are concerned that the application of biodegradable materials in agricultural mulch film is relatively mature, can you talk about this part of the situation?
Empathetic Team:Agricultural mulch film is another important means of production after seeds, fertilizers and pesticides, can play a role in heat preservation, water retention, insect control and weed control, the use of agricultural mulch film can greatly improve the productivity of planting crops, China is the world's largest country in the use of plastic film, covering the largest area. However, the long-term large-scale use of plastic film and the lack of effective treatment have also left a huge amount of white garbage in the soil that is difficult to degrade, resulting in the "white revolution" from increasing production and income to the "white pollution" that is difficult to control.
Here,Biodegradable plastic film has become an effective measure to replace traditional plastic film and solve the residual pollution of plastic film. In September 2020, China implemented the "Measures for the Management of Agricultural Films", which clearly stated that "encourage and support the production and use of fully biodegradable agricultural films". On February 21, 2022, the "Opinions of the Communist Party of China on Comprehensively Promoting Rural Revitalization and Accelerating the Modernization of Agriculture and Rural Areas" pointed out in document No. 1 that the research and development and promotion of degradable agricultural film should be strengthened. The research and development and promotion of degradable agricultural film are proposed in the "three rural" issues, which shows that the national policy attaches great importance to the development of green agriculture and environmentally friendly agriculture.
Fat Whale: Most of the above-mentioned benefits are policy-oriented, but the current cost of degradable materials is still high compared with traditional materials. What do you think of the difficulties this brings to the promotion of new materials?
Empathetic Team:At present, the cost of degradable materials can be controlled at 1 of ordinary materials5 times, which is already a relatively good level in the industry. When our degradable materials are used in agriculture, in addition to their environmental protection characteristics, they also promote the innovation of agricultural production technology. For example, we jointly promoted the rice mulching and seeding technology with a customer in Liaoning, which changed the traditional rice planting method and used the method of mulching seeds for rice planting, which not only simplified the planting process, saved seedling land and labor costs, but also reduced the functions of pesticide weeding and water saving through the mulching technology. In terms of civilian use, we are also continuing to follow up and investigate, although the cost of the mulch film itself has risen, but with the addition of other improved technologies, the comprehensive economic income of farmers is actually rising.
Fat Whale: What is the attitude of the ** farmers I have come into contact with towards biodegradable mulch film?
Empathetic Team:In general, everyone is still more cautious and has a wait-and-see attitude towards new technologies, after all, this will change the traditional Xi they have used for many years.
Fat Whale: What kind of promotion methods do you think will be more suitable for potential consumers, especially farmers?
Empathetic Team:Propaganda and education for farmers can not blindly emphasize the environmental protection characteristics of our products, and the popularization and penetration of environmental protection in China has not yet reached such a high level. On the one hand, we will pay more attention to the economic value of the product, and what kind of benefits it can actually bring to farmers, such as the technological innovation in agricultural production mentioned earlier, how much water and farming time have been saved for them, and so on. In addition, we are also actively exploring new ways of communication, and we have cooperated with the flow of the company, and it is also involved in the Sinopec matrix, including platforms such as Douyin. Our company has expanded the promotion of the "Good Solution" brand by participating in industry exhibitions such as the CIIE and the Brand Exhibition. These efforts have not only enhanced the public's awareness of the "Good Understanding" brand, but also enhanced the public's recognition of degradable plastics.
In addition, at present, because degradable mulch film is still an emerging technology, the market is still very non-standardized, and the fish and dragons are mixed, which is why we are actively doing the brand - to provide trust endorsement for our products, so that consumers can identify regular and high-quality degradable materials at a glance in the market.
This is a long-term task. The materials technology born in the laboratory is only a stone cast by people towards the long-term expectation of green, and whether it is a ripple or a wave within its reach remains to be verified by the market.
After the biodegradable plastics left the laboratory, in addition to the marketing performance that we have always focused on, the "Good Solution" team also continued to track the long-term mechanism and impact of the materials on the soil and the environment before and after degradation.
This study is not a year or two, but a decade, or more. The "Understanding" team added.