The "strictest plastic restriction order" in history has been implemented nationwide this year, and the plastic industry is facing the challenge of upgrading. Among them, as the most alternative to traditional plastics, biodegradable plastics have become the "new favorite" in the market. However, the reporter found that the degradable plastics industry is still "small and scattered", the high-end production capacity is still insufficient, the cost pressure of enterprises and businesses is large, there are objective obstacles in the comprehensive promotion of products, and a new round of quality upgrading is urgently needed.

In January 2020, the national development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of ecological environment issued the "opinions on Further Strengthening the control of plastic pollution", which not only put forward the requirements of banning and restricting the control of disposable plastic products for many industries, but also put forward the measures of promoting the application of alternative products, cultivating and optimizing the new business mode and increasing the supply of green products, which is known as the "strictest plastic restriction order" in history. After a year, the new regulation has been formally implemented nationwide, and local plastic restriction measures have been introduced one after another. The special rectification work has been gradually promoted, and the old and new plastic industries are facing the challenge of upgrading.

Since the implementation of the new plastic restriction order, degradable plastic products have become a "new favorite" in the market, and relevant enterprises have also made intensive distribution in this field. In 2019, the output of China's plastic products will exceed 80 million tons. It is proposed that if 20% of the market is replaced by degradable plastics, the corresponding market scale will have a hundred times growth space compared with now, and the industrial development will enter the "golden age". But at the same time, the scale of degradable plastics industry is still "small and scattered", with low-end overcapacity and high-end overcapacity, which calls for a new round of upgrading.

Has the supermarket department store and take away express around you completely "reduced plastic"? How about the application and promotion of degradable plastics? Will the industry usher in a new spring of vigorous growth?

We can manage Dalian, but we can't manage the canteen

Many large chain supermarkets and catering enterprises have completely replaced degradable plastic bags, but some roadside stores are still using disposable plastic bags

After the release of the new plastic restriction order, all parts of the country responded positively, and relevant measures were successively introduced in Hainan, Shandong, Zhejiang, Henan, Beijing and other places to strictly prevent "white pollution". In December last year, Beijing released the "Beijing action plan for plastic pollution control (2020-2025)", focusing on key industries such as catering, takeaway platform, wholesale and retail, strengthening the reduction of plastic and strictly controlling disposable plastic products.

During the interview in Beijing, the reporter found that many large-scale chain stores have completely replaced degradable plastic bags, and many large-scale chain catering enterprises have gradually eliminated the disposable plastic packaging boxes and straws commonly used in the past and replaced them with paper or other degradable material substitutes.

In Carrefour supermarket Zhongguancun store, the reporter saw that the shopping bags here have been replaced with degradable plastic bags. Among them, the price of large shopping bags is 0.8 yuan, and that of small shopping bags is 0.5 yuan. Supermarket staff said that the original price of ordinary plastic bags were 0.3 yuan for large size and 0.2 yuan for small size, but they will not be sold from January 1 this year. Due to the rising prices, the number of consumers who buy plastic bags is significantly reduced, and most of them are young people. Most of the middle-aged and old consumers will bring their own shopping bags.

In addition to Carrefour, supermarkets and convenience stores in Beijing, such as HEMA Xiansheng, convenient bee and chaoshifa, have all implemented degradable shopping bags, and their prices have increased significantly. The prices of large shopping bags in some supermarkets even exceed 1 yuan.

In front of the cash register of Auchan supermarket in Xihongmen, Beijing, the reporter met Ms. Niu who chose to buy degradable plastic bags temporarily because she didn't have her own shopping bags. She told reporters that there are few opportunities to go shopping in offline supermarkets, and she has not formed the habit of bringing her own shopping bags. "I always think that the shopping bags in supermarkets are only about 30 cents, and I don't think it's too expensive. Now the price of degradable plastic bags is indeed higher than before, but the material is more environmentally friendly. In the future, I will strive to prepare my own shopping bags. ".

"Plastic reduction" revolution is more innovative in the new tea industry. The reporter tried to place an order for a hi tea drink on the takeaway app. The order page has straw categories, which are subdivided into three options: "PLA degradable straw", "paper straw" and "no straw". The PLA degradable straw in hand seems to be the same as the ordinary plastic straw, but in fact, there is a mystery. According to Xi Cha, Xi Cha has replaced disposable non degradable plastic straws, tableware and packing bags used in all stores nationwide with PLA materials before January 1 this year, which can be completely degraded by microorganisms in nature and eventually generate carbon dioxide and water. At the same time, PLA material avoids the defects of ordinary paper material in molding, high temperature resistance, immersion resistance and so on.

Reducing the amount of disposable waste from the source and entering the terminal link is the key for the takeout industry to implement the plastic restriction order. The reporter called several popular restaurants in Xicheng District of Beijing through meituan takeout platform. Most of the businesses said that they had started to use degradable plastic boxes for packaging since last year. "The platform requires us to gradually replace the original disposable plastic boxes from December last year, and recommended the degradable packaging scheme. There are many green packaging enterprises and products to choose from.". However, some businesses said that they were not clear about the new plastic restriction policy and had not received relevant notice.

In the interview, the reporter also found that the use of degradable plastic products is not completely popular, but presents the phenomenon of "managing big chains, not small stores". The reporter visited several roadside breakfast shops and fruit shops in Zhongguancun, Beijing, and found that most shops still use disposable plastic bags.

A fruit shop owner admitted that the main reason for using disposable plastic bags is the low cost. "The purchase cost of a degradable shopping bag is 20 cents, compared with the cost of ordinary plastic bags, which is about 2 cents on average. We use hundreds of bags a day, and the total cost is very different. ".

However, the owner also said that in recent months, ordinary plastic bags are becoming more and more difficult to buy, "now it's still used in the previous inventory.". When this batch is used up, degradable plastic bags will also be used.

Race for "golden track" but don't rush on

Degradable plastics industry is expected to achieve rapid development, but at present, the industry is small and scattered, facing a new round of industrial upgrading challenges

The promotion of downstream demand and the intensive release of plastic restriction measures in various regions have boosted many upstream manufacturers to increase the production capacity of degradable materials and compete for this "golden track".

On January 19, Yingkou Kanghui Petrochemical Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Hengli Petrochemical Co., Ltd., signed an annual production of 600000 tons of poly (butylene succinate) (PBS) biodegradable plastics project. After the project is put into operation, the supply gap of domestic degradable plastics will be greatly alleviated.

As a global leading company of degradable plastics raw materials, Jinfa Technology Co., Ltd. used to focus on export business, with 80% of its raw materials sold abroad. After the implementation of the new plastic restriction order, the production line of Jinfa technology has been in a state of full production and full sales. With the increase of domestic demand, the company is stepping up the construction of new production capacity and the development of new biodegradable plastics. At present, a 60000 ton copolyester (PBAT) production line is under construction, which is expected to be put into operation in the first half of this year, and a 30000 ton PLA production line will also be put into operation in the fourth quarter.

According to the report released by foresight Industry Research Institute, the output of plastic products in China will reach 81.84 million tons in 2019, accounting for about 1 / 4 of the global demand for plastics. Meanwhile, in 2019, China's consumption of biodegradable plastics is only 520000 tons, accounting for only 4.6% of the world, significantly lower than the global average.

"With the introduction of supporting policies, the production capacity of biodegradable plastics, which has the most advantage in replacing traditional plastics, will grow rapidly, and the whole industry will also usher in new development opportunities." Said Zheng Yueming, chairman of LianHong New Material Technology Co., Ltd.

At present, China's degradable plastics industry is still in the lead-in period, Zheng Yueming told reporters, take the mainstream biodegradable material PLA products in the market as an example, domestic enterprises have just started, there is still a big gap between technology and European and American enterprises, and the continuous and stable production technology of key raw material lactide has not yet made a breakthrough; The production technology of PBS products has been mastered by domestic enterprises, but the continuous and stable production needs to be further improved; China's technology of polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) products is in the world's advanced ranks, but there is still a large space for the production cost to decline.

However, it also means that the potential market gap needs to be filled. It is estimated that by 2025, the demand for degradable plastics in disposable plastic tableware, plastic shopping bags, agricultural plastic film and express packaging will form a market space of about 2.5 million tons, with a market scale of about 50 billion yuan.

"Although the new regulation is the" most stringent plastic restriction order "in history, it does not mean a total ban on plastics, nor does it mean that degradable plastics can completely replace disposable plastics. It is necessary to strictly prevent the chaos of plastic enterprises rushing into mass action and reduce blind investment and low-level expansion. " Du Huanzheng, director of the Institute of circular economy of Tongji University, said in an interview that the degradable plastics industry is expected to achieve rapid development, but at present, the industry is small and scattered, facing a new round of industrial upgrading.

During the investigation and interview, the reporter also found that the biodegradable plastic products on the market are good and bad. Some manufacturers are suspected of using environmental protection terms such as "degradable" and "biodegradable" to mislead consumers and make false and exaggerated propaganda“ We should strengthen the construction of degradable plastics related systems and industry standards, increase the support of relevant policies, constantly enrich the standardized and international third-party testing force, improve the efficiency and reliability of performance evaluation, and guide the healthy development of the industry. " Du Huanzheng said.

Behind the surge of production capacity, there is still a long way to go for the standardized development of degradable plastics industry. Zheng Yueming believes that at present, the industrial structure of degradable plastics is unreasonable, the high-end capacity is insufficient, and the low-end capacity faces the risk of excess. It also needs the state to strengthen industrial guidance, improve the standard system, and further increase the support for the research and development and industrialization of key core technologies.

Promoting quality improvement and upgrading by innovation

If enterprises want to get long-term development, they need to constantly push through the old and bring forth the new, improve product quality and enhance product competitiveness

Scientific and technological innovation is becoming a sharp weapon for large-scale enterprises to seize the tuyere of the industry. Zheng Yueming believes that enterprises should reduce the cost of biodegradable materials through technological innovation and other means, and constantly improve the quality of products, so as to enhance the competitiveness of products“ Biodegradable materials are one of the key research and development fields of Lianhong Xinke. The PLA project, including special materials for polylactic acid bottle caps, has been developed in the laboratory. " Zheng Yueming said.

Although the market opportunities brought by the new plastic restriction order are expected, in the current biodegradable plastics market, if enterprises want to obtain long-term development, they need to constantly bring forth new products and improve product quality. Consumer experience is an important factor that can not be ignored in product update iteration, and it is an important basis for enterprises to carry out product innovation.

In 2020, Hefei Hengxin Environmental Protection Technology Co., Ltd. will become a packaging supplier of a new tea chain store“ Our original biodegradable products have been sold abroad before, but they have encountered a very big bottleneck in the domestic market. Due to the differences in consumption habits at home and abroad, many products can not be simply replaced. For example, in terms of the matching degree of PLA hot drink cups and covers, most of our domestic products are imported drinks, and the packaging materials should be completely sealed without any spillage and leakage. " Said Yan Deping, chairman and general manager of Hefei Hengxin Environmental Protection Technology Co., Ltd.

In order to change every drink into a "satisfactory and environmentally friendly" coat, Hengxin environmental protection constantly communicates with customers' needs. In addition to strictly considering environmental factors such as degradability, it also grinds the straw length, inner and outer diameters, incision inclination, drop performance and appearance according to the characteristics of cold and hot drinks, until the supply scheme is confirmed. Yan Deping sighed, "in the past four months, we often received feedback from customers late at night, and then continuously improved, finally produced a packaging with good use experience and environmental protection needs.".

"Since last year, domestic influential chemical enterprises have consistently responded to the requirements of the new version of the plastic restriction order and switched from ordinary plastics to biodegradable materials. This is what even if novel coronavirus pneumonia, shortage of raw materials and tight container handling are under pressure in 2020, our degradable plastics products can still maintain a 23% market growth rate. Yan Deping said that now the company has received more and more orders from the new tea and large chain catering industry, and has also explored a set of "please come in and go out" methods, insisting on listening to the needs and suggestions of downstream customers, so as to help the continuous upgrading of the industry process with the needs of consumers.

As for the price and cost of degradable plastics, many people in the industry believe that as the domestic degradable plastics industry enters the stage of rapid capacity expansion and rising consumer demand, it is believed that the whole industry will reach a consensus on environment-friendly materials from the production source to the consumer end, the market demand and production scale will become larger and larger, and the production cost of degradable plastics will become lower and lower.

"The scale of China's degradable plastics market is huge. The raw material production capacity previously reserved can not meet the market supply 100% in the first time, and the construction speed of raw material production capacity is obviously slower than that of product processing capacity, which leads to the rise of raw material prices. The construction of qualified and high-quality raw material production capacity is particularly critical and the most difficult step. When the level of production capacity continues to meet consumer demand, costs will fall further and prices will return to rationality. " Yuan Zhimin, chairman of Jinfa technology, said.

"In order to reduce the cost of degradable plastic products, on the one hand, enterprises need to adhere to technological progress and product innovation, on the other hand, they also need to constantly expand the market application, and strengthen the plastic limiting consciousness of multiple subjects. In this regard, the relevant departments and organizations should strengthen the education of environmental protection ethics, so that consumers' active choice will force the business Tang Dajie, a visiting researcher at the finance, taxation and law research center of Wuhan University, suggested that in this process, it would be crucial for the government to strengthen the law enforcement of plastic restriction legislation and introduce subsidy policies for degradable plastics.