Will plastic win?
'Limiting plastic orders' landing for ten years, what exactly is the effect? The real answer may only be known in landfills.
Documentary director Wang Jiuliang pointed the lens to the average use time limit of 25 minutes, but plastic products that required degradation for at least 200 years.
But before it became a garbage hill, it was a daily use of 3 billion plastic bags that were readily available; it was a daily flow of hundreds of millions, and it was a courier bag that was transferred all over the country; it could be built into hundreds of peaks a day. Indirectly fed more than 20 million mouthfuls of take-out boxes; it is still the rural 'white ocean'.
Plastics are constantly changing their form in high temperature and covering every individual in the consumer society. In the 10 years, when the 'plastic limit order' introduced the concept of 'environmentally valuable' to the public, science and technology also continuously pursued the environmental protection needs of consumers. A large number of 'green plastic bags' have been placed on the shelves, the screening of the plastic specific gravity method, and the degradation and regeneration of chemical means have become hot topics for environmental protection.
Few people know whether these projects really landed. Where did the 'green plastic bags' have been discarded? After 10 years passed, the plastic covered with layers of yarn never missed. At the beginning of this year, the National Development and Reform Commission invited all sectors of society on the official website. People give advice and suggestions on the prevention and treatment of plastic waste pollution. On the limited plastic efforts, continue.
Environmental protection or business opportunities?
In Wang Jiuliang's shot, the plastic bag is the absolute protagonist of the landfill.
More than 50 meters high on the rubbish hill, valuable things have been taken away. Only poor quality plastic products are unattractive, including the inability to count the number of 'green plastic bags'.
Liu Jianguo, professor of solid waste control and resource research at Tsinghua University's School of Environmental Studies, is not surprised at the fate of these 'green plastic bags'. 'Green plastic bags require strict conditions to degrade, such as temperature, moisture content, specific reactors, etc. It is difficult to degrade in the natural environment. 'He noticed that the whereabouts of these 'green plastic bags' were still mixed with various types of waste, and were then compressed and weighed, and finally sent to landfills or incinerators.
The only difference from ordinary plastic bags is that consumers 'cost more to meet their environmental needs.'
He found that a large number of plastic bags marked with 'degradable' labels are actually products of degradable materials and non-degradable materials mixed together. After being shipped from the factory, they have become a 'green plastic bag' with a price increase, which is huge. Business.
'If a biodegradable plastic bag gets oiled, it needs to be cleaned with chemical reagents before entering the degradation process. How much does this process cost?' he said.
Wang Jiuliang is very clear that the speed of progress in science and technology is unstoppable. Italy has developed a new technology - in a pile of garbage, rely on crushing, weight and other methods to filter plastic. But these methods are difficult to implement in China.
'Our garbage is not classified, what kind of material is there in the waste water, how many processes have to go through and how much does it cost?', he said.
Wang Jiuliang feels that there is more urgent need to do than to pin his hopes on science and technology. For example, to rationally examine how plastic has affected the world around him. The pillars that support the parasols of coffee shops Traffic isolated pillars, everywhere plastic trash can, as far as can be, everywhere have been repeatedly used after the poor quality plastic products figure.
Returning to his hometown, he discovered a rural village that was almost surrounded by plastic. The mulch that had not been heard from childhood had become the 'owner' of farmland.
In the field, beside the canal road, and even on the street, the farmer's yard saw the discarded mulch everywhere. The old mulch was not finished and the new one was covered. 'Jiang Gaoming, a researcher at the Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, knows very well. , The thickness of only 0.004 mm of the film is difficult to completely peel from the soil, due to the light weight of soiled ash, mulch film recovery value is low, in addition to burning and shelving there is no other way.
Walking on farmland, if you open the soil, it is easy for the naked eye to see a piece of white mulch that is crushed and clumped together, like a crop that grows in the ground.
He found that the rural area is an almost 'unmanaged plastic world'. There are environmentalists who go to the countryside to eat at home, disposable plastic tableware put on the table, after use, the villagers readily thrown into the stove, plastic bowl cup speed Disappears, then turns into an invisible carcinogen, dioxin, which empties into the air, and then circulates with precipitation to farmland and rivers.
These poorly-quality plastic products that were eliminated by the cities are rushing into rural areas with the consumer wave. Since some villages do not have specialized sanitation personnel and garbage collection systems, plastic products enter the rivers or ditches through wind and rain, leaving them in rivers, lakes, and farmland mountains. .
Negative value-added industries?
Wang Jiuliang’s lens once targeted a company that recycles mineral water bottles in Japan. The company has a spacious workshop of several hundred square meters and has advanced intelligent and numerical control equipment. In the production line, plastic bottles are smashed and cleaned in sequence. , Recycling. In the workshop, Wang Jiuliang could not find sewage, and he could not smell a pungent odor.
To his surprise, the person in charge of such a 'model' company was often annoyed by the recycling of plastic bottles. Japan's sewage discharge requirements are too high, and they need to spend a lot of money to meet the discharge standards. 'If there is no government subsidy, We are losing money. ' The person in charge told Wang Jiuliang that the government gave them a subsidy of 20,000 yen for each ton of waste water bottles purchased.
Even so, they are unable to recycle more types of plastic products, 'environmental costs are too high'.
The lens is aimed at the Chinese garbage disposal plant, but it is a picture of Wang Jiu-liang's sadness. He spent 3 years shooting a documentary titled “The Kingdom of Plastics.” The documentary tells about the industry chain of China’s foreign waste. - Some people buy rubbish from all over the world from ocean-going cargo ships, pick out recyclable plastics, then pulverize after rinsing, then heat and melt, and cut into plastic pellets for manufacturing use.
'Japan has to build a factory to deal with a single pollutant. A small workshop in China can handle all kinds of plastic garbage all over the world.' He said, 'China has the best people in the world who do garbage sorting. They don't have protection. Measures, no advanced technology. ' During the filming, those dark faces taught Wang Jiuliang to distinguish the way of plastic waste around the world - feel, hear the sound, and then see the smoke to see the smell of fire.
'They are a group of farmers.' He said.
A table-size grinder, two table-top granulators can form a small workshop. In the roar of the machine, plastic debris flies in the air. From Wang Jiuliang's lens, every corner of the screen can be See plastic debris. After another shot, the sewage may be discharged into the river without treatment.
The difference between the workshops is only the size, 'You have 10 such machines, and I may only have one.'
Outside of the lens, in Japan, more and more difficult to deal with plastic waste has been exported to China. Over the past 10 years, China's imports of foreign waste have experienced explosive growth, decline and a complete ban this year.
'Is it still profitable to import? Can it be really beneficial?' Wang Jiuliang could not help but ask, 'What is the cost of the environment?'
In the three-year shooting time, the camera recorded the 'costs' that were visible, the water in the village floated with rubbish and white foam; the sewage after cleaning plastics flowed into the forest; and when the old lady sorted out, she accidentally encountered corrosive chemicals. The entire joints of her fingers are carbonized; the owner of a small workshop feels that the tumor grows on the waist but he does not want to see a doctor. 'Did the patient's illness be detected? Is it too late? A batch of particles, baby's tuition for six months.'
The filming of the documentary made Wang Jiuliang clearly understand the principle: 'Environmentally friendly garbage recycling is a negative value-added industry.' He used an analogy, if environmental protection type recycling 1 ton of waste plastics can produce 100 yuan economic benefits The cost to be paid is at least RMB 101. 'Otherwise, it cannot be explained why Japan, which has been recognized as the best recycling garbage in the world, has to provide government subsidies for the recovery of garbage, and it also fails to explain why the Kingdom of Plastics There will still be Japanese garbage in the Chinese garbage that comes to China.
According to environmentalists, 'landfills and incinerators earn money for the disposal of waste, rather than recycling plastic waste.'
In fact, these wet and dry mixed wastes are not highly efficient after incineration. They may also emit toxic substances and produce fly ash and waste residues under conditions of insufficient combustion. Correspondingly, 'recycling from massive amounts of waste Plastic products are more expensive and more exaggerated. '
'Environmental protection is often a matter of a few harms.' Liu Jianguo said that currently there is a voice in the society, and it is expected that scientists will be able to find out things that completely replace plastic bags. But in fact, from the whole life cycle calculation, whether it is a canvas bag , The pollution that the paper bag consumes also brings less pollution.
For example, he said that if you make paper bags, you need to go through the process of planting trees, cutting down trees, making pulp, and making paper. The cotton cultivation involved in canvas shopping bags is a high-consumption, high-energy-consuming industry that not only considers pesticides but also chemical fertilizers. The amount of use, but also to consider the occupation of land resources, transportation, printing and dyeing, circulation, the cost of landfill burning after being abandoned. 'You only see the use of multiple times, but did not think that once you have to deal with, the weight of the bag is a plastic bag. Dozens of times, occupying space, processing difficulty is not small.
The scholar who researched solid waste has done experiments. For every use of 200 canvas bags, its environmental impact is better than using a plastic bag.
'The fundamental problem is not to find a substitute for a plastic bag. What we really need to do is to examine our consumer behavior.' Jiang Gaoming said.
Mass production, mass consumption, large amount of waste
A large area of plastic greenhouses and mulches occupied farmland. According to data from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the use of plastic film has increased by more than 200 times in just 30 years. Jiang Gaoming, who has studied white pollution in rural areas for more than a decade, found that the butterfly effect Changing the appearance of farmland has a lot to do with the table in the city.
He said that in order to produce off-season vegetables and fruits, rural villages are building large numbers of plastic greenhouses. The 'white ocean' mulch of cultivated land is used to improve soil temperature and humidity to prolong the production season of higher economic value crops and eventually increase their yield. .
After the mulch film was laid down, the yield did increase. However, at the same time, the mulch film was difficult to peel off from the soil after use. They stayed in the soil for a long time, destroyed the soil structure, the living space lost the organisms, the nematodes, left one by one, the land finally Consolidation.
Jiang Gaoming noticed that in order to solve this problem, many people even adopted the method of 'membrane middle film'. The greenhouse covered a layer of film and laid a layer on the ground in order not to lose water. Such a sealed environment would Kill microorganisms in the soil alive and eventually evolve into fragile ecosystems.
He saw one after another sad face. Some farmers suffered from crop failure, disease, and other problems. Some cattle and sheep ate peanut pods covered by mulching films and were alive to death. Jiang Gaoming told people to turn the land clear. Seeing the mulch on peanut pods like parasites. They brought the soil back to the lab and even discovered the mulch that remained 30 years ago. 'It has become a tiny, invisible plastic piece. However, it has not disappeared.
Most of the mulching membranes that are too late to be processed are burned. Therefore, the harmful substances such as HCB, dioxins, and PCBs enter the air.
And where are those crops that have been infected and used pesticides and pesticides? Jiang Gaoming said, 'Ultimately, they were all on the table in the city.'
He felt that all this was ironic. The endless consumer demand controlled the flow of the market, but it was eventually repulsed. He had discussed with the peasants and simply took away the reflective film on the orchard and used it sparingly. Reduce pollution and waste. The other party rejected the proposal. The reason is simple - no reflective film, uneven coloring of apples, poor sales, no one would buy.
'The apple was eaten, not taken.' Jiang Gaoming said.
The scholar couldn't help but ponder, 'Do we really have such a large consumer demand?' He disliked the packaging pattern of a plastic sheet of sugar, openly criticized the behavior of the publishing industry for plastic film on books, and also opposed the provision of the hotel. Disposable plastic washing utensils, 'How much waste will this cause?'
Liu Jianguo summed up the 12 words: 'mass production, mass consumption, large amount of waste'.
Looking out from the office building of the Environmental College of Tsinghua University, intensive housing and office buildings are constantly shrinking the space of the city. Plastic bags, construction waste, e-waste, scrap steel, tires, glass, and even shared bicycles... Liu Jianguo feels Economic growth is too fast, the pace of life is accelerating, people's consumption patterns have changed, demand has been stimulated, and the fast market has been created. The sharing of bicycles is an 'angel' that solves the last kilometer problem a year or two ago. 5. The parking lot became a trash mountain.
"A lot of people don't think about it. They just think plastic bags are a big problem, so when they are eating plastic boxes, they take away the sins of plastic. When you really think about it, you will find that there are problems everywhere." The scholar sighed. .
The abandoned construction waste landfill after the big demolition and construction was also the object of Wang Jiuliang's lens capture. He saw a dense population in a landfill nearly two kilometers wide. At the peak, more than 2,000 people were in various places. Waste pipes, wire rods, plastics, steel bars, bricks, and shuttles, carrying things to the sheds on the edge of the landfill. They are their temporary residence and temporary residence for waste materials. Cranes and trucks will soon Take these materials and send them to the next site or factory.
In an overwhelming atmosphere, Wang Jiuliang stood in the distance, smelling a few things.
When filming “The Kingdom of Plastics”, this young documentary director noticed a set of data. From the large-scale import of foreign waste in 1995 to around 2008, the entire ocean recycling industry reflected a perfect upward curve in economic value. The United States’ US$1 ton of US$9 waste can be sold to a small workshop after being shipped across the ocean to China. After processing, the price of a ton of plastic granules is almost equal to five digits. The price is fast. Catch up with raw materials'.
'I thought people could be as low as the dust, but didn't expect to be low in the trash.' At a screening event, a college teacher cried after watching the film.
To make the company feel pain, to make people feel pain
In many cases, Wang Jiuliang felt that he was also consigned by the wave of consumerism. He used his hand to poke the plastic cup in his hand and asked: 'If you do not provide a plastic cup, can't you drink it?'
Wang Jiuliang said that how many plastics will be produced will eventually lead to the emergence of many plastic wastes. The process of repeated reuse will only lead to a continuous decline in the performance of plastics, and eventually it will become a truly unrecyclable plastic waste. In order to avoid plastic waste, The only way to pollute the environment is to reduce use.
In his view, the scope of the 'plastic limit order' is too narrow, 'should cover more industries'. The means need to rely on the government to regulate, 'the enterprises that produce mineral water bottles have benefited, should they bear the cost of environmental protection? Does the public enjoy the convenience of plastic bottles? Should this be the case? Should the packaging industry be reformed? Do you not need to pay taxes when you sell plastic bags?
'To make the company feel pain, people should feel pain,' he said.
Liu Jianguo believes that in the past 10 years, the biggest value of the 'plastic limit order' was not to limit the number of ultra-thin plastic bags, but that it had passed through the charges on plastic bags and passed to the society 'resources are valuable, and the use of resources needs to be paid. Cost's signal.
Only, 'If one day, the price of a plastic lunch box really rises from 5 cents to 5 yuan. Will consumers be willing to pay for it? Someday, they really use recyclable waste to create recyclable lunch boxes. Will people be willing to use it?' , Increased costs, market oscillations, attempts to change the situation all of a sudden are impossible.
The scholar believes that the current need for plastic name, 'The material is not from the sky, plastic is not evil, it is made by humans.'
'Plastics should not be demonized, nor should we confuse the evils of plastics with poor management.' He said, 'Can we not prevent plastics from entering the water? Let it not enter the farmland? Any material mismanagement will become The problem, not just plastic. '
'Improve the technical and management level of the entire recycling system, and promote the classification of waste, which can be really done. 'The breakthrough in Liu Jianguo's eyes is the rural area. 'Be out of nothing, establish a basic recycling system as soon as possible, even if it is simple Landfill. '
If you can sort the garbage to make it less difficult to deal with, then it is possible to establish a derivative plastic transit center, 'at least more than a fire directly burned more valuable'.
But in Jiang Gaoming's view, the things that can be tried right now are more than this.
He once heard that in Gansu, where water is scarce, agronomists helped local farmers develop double-layer mulches and spread two layers of mulch on land to help dry land to lock in moisture so that more corn can be planted. The project won the project, and finally 'the parties' satisfaction' was 'happy.'
Jiang Gaoming is not happy at all. 'Technology has a problem. What you want is to develop a technology to solve it. In fact, artificially creating the best temperature and humidity environment to grow corn is against the laws of nature.' Said, 'The source is wrong.'
Before this, a Spanish scientist discovered that 100 wax mites degraded 92 milligrams of polyethylene within 12 hours. After being compiled by the media, this insect became a 'salvage' with the ability to digest plastics. When the news came out, Jiang Gaoming could not laugh Every day, humans produce hundreds of thousands of tons of polyethylene, and let the insects come to eat. They don't know that they have to eat monkeys. More importantly, letting insects eat something that the natural world did not have, the idea is still 'alleged'.
He is always thinking that perhaps the natural conditions in some parts of Gansu are not suitable for growing corn, can they develop Chinese herbal medicines for cultivation and can they think of ways to promote ecological agriculture?
Jiang Gaoming is very clear that it is consumers who can really make this change happen. 'The money in the hands of urban consumers is the best ballot. Wherever you invest, where will form the industry.' He said.
What should we do? Optimistic!
Before shooting "The Kingdom of Plastics" and "Rubbage Fortress," Wang Jiuliang was a student of the Communication University of China. At that time, some "flow of consciousness" he wanted to do an exhibition called "Supermarket," a conceptualization. Things, the shelves are full of not new products, but empty boxes filled with milk, what to eat after the ice cream plastic bucket, so that the garbage fill the shelves.
After the idea popped up, he began to carry the machine to large and small waste dumps. There, he discovered something more important than art. The seriousness of the plastic waste problem is far beyond the imagination of this young man.' There are more urgent things you need to solve.'
In the face of reality, metaphysical conceptual arts landed and eventually turned into a documentary project. He also abandoned explicit opinions and chose to point directly to the issue.
In the post-production process of “The Kingdom of Plastics”, he has been thinking: On the surface, these industries may be the pillars in the local area and support countless rural families. But when the acquisition of individual interests is based on the foundation of harming the interests of others. On top of this, this has become a major issue of right and wrong. "Abandoning this industry is a must. To see more affected people, who are their interests, and who will speak?"
He always forgot about an old man who was encountered during the shooting. Because of the pollution of the water source of the village where he was dealing with 'foreign rubbish,' the nearby villagers could only go a long way to buy water. One day, Wang Jiuliang met in the place where he bought water. An embarrassed old lady. The vendor told the old man that a bucket of water costs 4 yuan. The old lady is embarrassed to say, '4 bucks, can I owe it first?'
Since January of this year, the country has started a total ban on the import of 24 types of 'foreign garbage' from abroad, and cut off the industry that has been invented for more than 20 years. Wang Jiuliang saw hope from this, he thought, if it really imposes garbage tax, it must be top-down. To promote reforms, perhaps we hope to be ahead.
Jiang Gaoming thinks this is not too difficult. He remembered that in the past, the country’s treatment of cooking oil, flour brighteners, each of which was a cake for many people, was eventually implemented.
This time, the tough bones became plastic products.
'The Queen of England can introspect and ask the royal industry to ban the use of plastic straws and plastic bottles. Why can't we?' he said.
The United Kingdom promised to the public earlier this year that the British government will implement a 25-year plan to eliminate all avoidable plastic waste pollution by 2042. This voice has not received more support from the general public, and many people leave messages on social platforms. , 'The government set the time too late, 2042 is too late, and it should be taken now.'
The plastic problem has become a world-class problem. Bangladesh once suffered a catastrophic flood. People were surprised to find that the plastic bag turned out to be the primary cause of the blockage of the drainage system. Unable to count the number of blue-footed ostriches are also losing their homes, plastic waste. It became the new owner of the Lobos Teira Island beach in Peru. There is data showing that these plastic wastes cause the death of hundreds of thousands of marine animals every year.
British Prime Minister Theresa May said that 'one of every three fish caught in the English Channel contains plastic debris.' Antarctica also did not get rid of plastic pollution. Earlier this year, scientists discovered that the surface waters of Antarctica have appeared. Plastic particles that are not visible to the naked eye are even higher than the average level in the ocean.
Bangladesh became the first country in the world to implement plastic bag bans in 2002. According to the law, people who import or sell plastic bags can be sentenced to up to 10 years’ imprisonment, and people who issue plastic bags are punished by imprisonment for 6 months. 2. In this country's supermarkets, only bags and paper bags will be sold.
Wang Jiuliang toured around the world with a movie. Many young viewers couldn't help but ask Wang Jiuliang: 'What should we do?'
He does not intend to answer these questions. Wang Jiuliang hopes that these young people who pay attention to environmental protection will seek their own answers.
Some young people also asked him whether it would be particularly pessimistic to shoot for such a long time. Wang Jiuliang laughed. 'When you insist on doing this, it shows that the heart you want to change has not changed. Optimistic point, even if we can't, there are children.
In recent years, what surprised him is that there are already many groups that are concerned about garbage collection in the private sector. They appear like stars and stars on the map, looking for the possibility of solving problems.
In Wuxi, a group of doctors and college students paid attention to the recovery of used medical waste such as used syringes. They ran the major hospitals in Wuxi to persuade the other party to accept their proposal – to every patient who needed to use a syringe at home. Distributing a special weapon box. This box is used to place specially used syringes. After the patient is used, it can be returned to the hospital's recycling site to avoid the syringe being thrown directly into the trash. Later, they ran to Suzhou again. Shanghai's hospital.
This business is still in progress.
JD Logistics's green packaging project leader is also frank. The use of plastic courier bags is huge. One-time packaging has great advantages in terms of cost. Currently, it still occupies the mainstream in the express delivery industry. 'Implementing circular express courier packaging has difficulties in recycling at the end of the community. The system and social infrastructure are not perfect, and there are also lack of laws and regulations to support recycling companies to recycle.
Right now, Jingdong Logistics is promoting the use of a circulating courier box - a flow box, using PP material, which can be recycled for many times, and can be rebuilt after damage. It will not cause harm to the environment and can replace the disposable cartons. They hope, ' Coordinate the resources of all sectors of society, form a relatively complete industrial chain, and fully integrate green circulation packaging.
Liu Jianguo said that many problems in China, including the issue of plastic bags, are focused on ultra-high-speed economic development. These issues have been gradually resolved by many developed countries in the past 100 years, and China needs to be in 20 years or even shorter time. In order to solve this problem, he hopes that the people can give more support and understanding, and at the same time, they can proceed from their own perspectives and look at their consumer behavior more fully and rationally, and reflect on their own consumer needs.
"In fact, humans have taken a detour." Jiang Gaoming said that problems in the development process are not terrible, and timely correction is justified. He even hopes that the use of plastic bags, abuse, restrictions, reflections, and all of the future can be Record it, write it into textbooks, and become a mirror forever in history.