With the full implementation of China's plastic ban, the annual domestic demand for biodegradable polyester PBAT is expected to exceed 10 million to 15 million tons. Experts believe that circular economy is the future development direction of the plastics industry.

With the full implementation of China's plastic ban, the annual domestic demand for biodegradable polyester PBAT is expected to exceed 10 million to 15 million tons. Experts believe that circular economy is the future development direction of the plastics industry. "The implementation of the 'plastic limit order' has brought new opportunities for plastic products manufacturers!" Chongqing Shengshi new material Co., Ltd. legal person Liu Xingyan said. Recently, the company signed a contract with Chongqing Changshou Economic Development Zone to invest in new chemical materials projects

The annual sales revenue exceeded 10 billion yuan. The project has a production capacity of 240,000 tons/year PBAT production plant, not only the output will become the first in the country and even the world, with obvious scale advantages, to fill the biodegradable materials

Blank in the southwest.

Data show that with the full implementation of China's plastic ban, the annual domestic demand for biodegradable polyester PBAT is expected to exceed 10 million to 15 million tons.

In recent years, plastic products everywhere make environmental pollution more and more serious, in June this year, the state launched a "plastic limit order" : by the end of the year will completely ban the production and sale of some plastic products, promote green plastic products, explore new formats, and regulate plastic waste recycling, disposal, special treatment of plastic waste.

It is understood that the first to ban the use of non-degradable plastic bags, disposable plastic products in the hotel, disposable plastic tableware, straws and express packaging prohibited the use of non-degradable plastic products. These infiltrated the public

Once the daily necessities in all aspects of life are banned, how will it affect our lives, and what challenges will plastic products manufacturers face?

The degradable material "caught fire.

A new study from Science shows that future global plastic emissions could reach 53 million tons, which is 6.6 times the UN standard of 8 million tons.

The latest statistics show that there are 120 million tons of single-use plastic products in the world every year, of which only 10% are recycled, about 12% are incinerated, and more than 70% are discarded into the soil, air and sea. The annual residual agricultural film in Chinese soil alone is as high as 350,000 tons, and the residual film rate is 42%.

With the development of the economy, environmental governance has risen to the top of the national development, as an important source of environmental pollution, the waste plastic industry has reached the point of no transformation.

What is more worrying is that under the influence of the new coronavirus epidemic, the control of plastic pollution has become more difficult. According to the data during the epidemic in China, the daily production of disposable masks reached 116 million in February this year, which is 12 times the production of medical masks before the epidemic. The output of medical plastic waste has also risen - at the peak of the epidemic this year, Wuhan's healthcare system was churning out more than 240 tons of single-use plastic medical waste every day.

According to a report by business analysis website BusinessWire, the estimated size of the global plastic packaging market during the epidemic has grown from $909.2 billion in 2019 to $1012.6 billion in 2021.

In order to deal with the excessive amount of plastic medical waste as soon as possible, some improper ways of waste plastic disposal have emerged during the epidemic, such as mobile incineration, direct landfill or on-site incineration. However, according to a 2020 report by the World Wide Fund for Nature, even if only 1% of masks are improperly disposed of, it can produce up to 30 to 40 tons of plastic waste.

With the increasingly serious environmental pollution, the complete ban on plastic straws at the end of the year is another blow to plastic pollution in China. Among them, for the "plastic reduction" in the field of takeout, there are also clear indicator requirements: By 2025, the consumption intensity of non-degradable disposable plastic tabletop in the field of food and beverage takeout in cities above the prefecture level will be reduced by 30%.

"Under the national policy, non-degradable and green environmental protection has been an important direction for the development of the plastics industry." Chongqing Plastics Industry Association secretary general Liu Hanlong believes.

According to Hua 'an Securities statistics, as of July 2020, there are 36 companies under construction or planning to build degradable plastic projects, with a total of 4.405 million tons of new production capacity.

Transformation challenges

Degradable plastic materials are sought after in raw material companies, but they are facing difficulties in middle and downstream companies.

"Polylactic acid is too expensive. It costs three times what we produce now." Zhang Jia, who specializes in producing environmentally friendly plastic garbage bags in Bayuquan district of Dalian, admitted that the cost of degradable materials is the most difficult thing for small private enterprises like hers.

The plastic production plant operated by Zhang Jia opened in 2018, and there is a growing number of private plastics companies like her. Enterprise check data shows that at present, there are 2.83 million enterprises related to plastic products in China. Among them, the number of registrations in 2019 was the largest, reaching 566,000, an increase of 25.5%.

Although the number of enterprises is large, there is a problem of low concentration, especially in the plastic industry daily supplies scattered a large number of small and medium-sized private enterprises, they face multiple difficulties on the road to degradable transformation. At present, plastic products are seriously differentiated and the market competition is fierce. Zhang Jia told reporters that the profit margin of their plastic factory is basically below 10%, and it will even be as low as 5% in the off-season. "My machine costs 300,000 yuan, and now it will take me a long time just to earn back the cost of the machine." Zhang Jia said.

In addition to the fierce competition in the market itself and the cost dilemma faced by processing enterprises in their transformation, the acceptance of the market will also become a new test. "As the cost of degradable raw materials increases, the price of plastic bags will also rise to two or three times, and if we sell this, people may not buy it." Zhang Jia said.

To this end, manufacturers have also explored the differentiation of their own products, such as: the development of modified materials for new energy vehicles; Development of lightweight, high-strength materials for 3D printing; The development of highly flame-retardant recyclable film grade materials for packaging.

The application of new technology is valued

"The plastic products industry has gone through the stage of 'there is no' and 'good', and is now developing to the stage of 'strong or not strong'." China Plastics Industry Conference China Light Industry Federation executive secretary Guo Yongxin said.

Guo Yongxin said that the promotion of degradable materials will certainly have an impact on the raw material system, the price system and the product system. At present, the way to achieve high-quality development of China's plastics industry is still to rely on independent innovation, intelligent manufacturing, international layout, brand operation in four directions.

For a long time, the recycling and environmental protection treatment of low residual value waste plastics has been the pain point and missing point of the whole industry, with the continuous research and development of waste plastic pyrolysis oil technology and technological breakthroughs, a new treatment way has been found. This year, including Sinopec, SABIC and other domestic and foreign petrochemical giants on the technology of unprecedented attention, some domestic and foreign environmental protection technology enterprises have also made substantial technological breakthroughs, waste plastic pyrolysis oil large-scale clean production equipment is about to achieve industrial production, is ushering in a period of outbreak.

"The circular economy is the future direction of our plastics industry. Not only the plastics industry itself, but also legal standards and operating mechanisms related to plastic production, government measures related to plastic recycling, enterprise innovation capacity, and social acceptance of degradable plastics will become new challenges for the plastics industry." Liu Hanguang said.