As early as April last year, the Economic System of the China Academy of Macroeconomics and the Institute of Quantitative and Technical Economics of the Institute of Management of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences jointly released the "Concept and Practice of China's Plastic Pollution Control". The report pointed out that after years of hard work, China has built a fairly complete waste plastic utilization system, not only in the world in terms of waste plastic production capacity and recycling.
There is an urgent need to focus on plastic pollution
In the past, it was the daily habit of many people to use plastic bags when shopping and buying groceries, but now, with the rise of online shopping and takeaway, a variety of plastic bags, lunch boxes and express packaging and other colorful and diverse plastic products have brought great pressure to the ecological environment.
According to a 2021 report released by the United Nations Environment Programme, the world produced about 9.2 billion tons of plastic between 1950 and 2017. It is estimated that by 2050, the cumulative global production of plastics will soar to 34 billion tons, and the annual plastic waste generated will reach 300 million tons. Plastic pollution has become the second most important environmental problem in the world after climate change, which has brought great challenges to global sustainable development.
From a material point of view, plastic itself is not a pollutant. The root cause of plastic pollution is that discarded plastic is mismanaged, leading to environmental leakage. Once plastic leaks into the natural environment such as soil and water, it will cause visual, soil and water pollution due to its difficulty in degrading, and improper treatment may also affect greenhouse gas emissions and cause long-term harm to the fragile ecological environment. Among them, microplastics entering the food chain may pose a serious threat to human health. Li Junjiang, general manager of Zaimei Polymer Materials, emphasized.
Plastic is an indispensable material in human production and life, so it is neither scientific nor realistic to remove it from our production and life. Li Junjiang believes that in the face of the potential risk of plastic pollution, it is necessary to strengthen the use of plastic waste and actively develop a circular economy for plastics.
Zaimei contributes "Chinese wisdom".
In the face of the increasingly serious problem of plastic pollution, China is strengthening the use of plastic waste, and actively advocating and developing a circular economy for plastics. In all aspects of production, circulation, use, and treatment, China is promoting the governance of the whole life cycle to find a path for the coordinated development of plastic use and ecological environmental protection.
Classification** is a key step in achieving plastic recycling. According to Li Junjiang's introduction, China has introduced a series of incentive measures, including investment, finance, taxation, etc., to standardize and guide the use of plastic waste, and promote the development of the plastics industry in the direction of green, low-carbon and recycling. Under the guidance of the public, enterprises and the public have participated extensively, forming a wide range of use networks.
In China, the reuse of waste plastics is not a new industry, its origin can be traced back to the 80s of the 20th century, the initial scale of the 90s of the 20th century, and ushered in rapid development after 2000. Prior to this, China's recycled plastics industry was mainly dominated by small and medium-sized enterprises, and there were even many small family-style workshops, and the industry generally had problems such as small scale, poor technology, meager profits, and serious secondary pollution in production.
In 2021, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment jointly issued the "14th Five-Year Plan for Plastic Pollution Control", which clearly proposes to promote the large-scale, standardized and clean development of the plastic waste recycling industryImprove the relevant standards for recycled plastics, accelerate the promotion and application of advanced and applicable technologies and equipment for the recycling of waste plastics, and encourage the realization of the same level and high value-added utilization of plastic waste.
Nowadays, China has established a complete waste plastic utilization system, including outlets, sorting centers, processing and utilization plants, etc. With the help of technological innovations such as the Internet and the Internet of Things, the effective integration of the garbage classification network and the renewable resource utilization network has been promoted, and remarkable results have been achieved.
In Dingzhou, Hebei Province, Zaimei Polymer Materials has presented a unique development strategy.
Founded on August 28, 2020, Zaimei Polymer Materials*** is affiliated to Hebei Zaimei Science and Technology Development***, focusing on the production of food-grade recycled high-density polyethylene (RHDPE) plastic pellets.
Although it is a new face in the industry, Zaimei has set "regeneration to create a better life" as its corporate mission from the beginning of its establishment, and is committed to making more outstanding contributions to the country's goal of "carbon neutrality" and "carbon peak". In order to improve the recycling rate of recycled plastics, Zaimei continues to introduce high-tech talents and set up a polymer material research center. Through continuous efforts, Zaimei has successfully increased the content of rhdpe plastic particles in blow molded products to more than 40%, which meets the food-grade application standards and realizes the recycling of waste HDPE plastic products from "bottle" to "bottle".
Adhering to the development concept of low-carbon recycling in the whole process, Zaimei invested 1200 million yuan, built a digital smart factory with a total area of 40,200 square meters.
At present, Zaimei has 15 world-leading crushing, cleaning and granulation production lines, adhering to the treatment principle of "reduction, stabilization and harmlessness", and adopting advanced, reliable and efficient treatment technology to promote the transformation of waste plastic treatment from end treatment to whole process control, and reduce and reduce waste generation from the source.
Zaimei Smart Factory has a new look, subverting people's traditional perception of "small, broken and dirty" in the recycled plastics industry. Through the introduction of modern industrial production equipment and full-scene intelligent management system, Zaimei has realized the standardization and cleanliness of the production process of recycled plastics.
Zaimei Smart Factory has passed a number of certifications such as ISO three-standard management system and ISO50001 energy management system. The company also adheres to technological innovation, successfully applied for and registered more than 40 national patent technologies, and built a complete set of intelligent solutions for the recycling industry, laying a solid foundation for promoting the large-scale development of the recycled plastics industry.
At present, Zaimei Dingzhou Smart Factory can process 300 tons of waste plastics per day, with an annual output of 100,000 tons of rhdpe plastic particles, and an annual output value of 575 million yuan, which can meet the hollow packaging needs of hundreds of millions of people in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.
Conclusion
At present, China has strong strength in waste plastics** and recycling, and its production capacity and output are among the world's leading positions. The number of waste plastics** and recycling enterprises has exceeded 150,000, with about 900,000 employees. In 2021, the materialization of waste plastics in China will reach about 19 million tons, with a rate of 31%, which is almost 1 percent of the average materialization rate of waste plastics in the world74 times. China's first-class utilization capacity accounts for 70% of the world's first-class capacity, and has achieved 100% of the country's first-class material utilization. In contrast, the United States, the European Union, and Japan in the same period of the local waste plastic material rate, respectively. 18% and 1250%。
In the process of plastic pollution control, more and more consumers consciously choose environmentally friendly products, carry personal toiletries when traveling, and refuse to over-package goods, gradually forming a new trend of green consumption. In daily life, consumers actively participate in garbage classification, do not litter plastic waste, and hand over waste plastic items such as beverage bottles to professional personnel to contribute to the recycling of plastic waste. Many schools are also carrying out "plastic pollution control" campaigns, so that the concept of green consumption can be passed on from generation to generation.