On May 28th, Beijing time, in the field of environmental protection, an important extraterritorial message came: The European Commission issued its bill on the regulation of plastic waste. If the proposal is approved by the European Parliament and the European Council, it will become EU's enforcement policy.
'Limiting plastic orders' implemented for ten years, the effect did not reach expectations
The most compelling content of the proposal is to prepare for the ban or restriction of 11 types of plastic products throughout the EU, 10 of which are disposable plastic products, including cotton swabs, cutlery, balloons, lunch boxes, beverage cups, beverage bottles, cigarette filters , plastic bags, snack packaging, wet wipes and women's health care products, the remaining category is plastic fishing gear.
In the face of the global plastic pollution crisis, the EU is changing from 'screaming' to 'vigorous', and the follow-up progress is worth looking forward to.
At the same time, China will usher in the tenth anniversary of the implementation of the “Limited Plastic Order.” Although this policy is only aimed at products like plastic shopping bags, it was launched eleven years ago (the time of release was at the end of 2007). At the time, it showed China's forward-looking nature in the field of plastic waste pollution control. Further back in the year, as early as 2001, as the typical representative of the "white pollution" plastic foam lunch box for the first time was banned production and use in the country, It also shows that our country has always had ambitions in the management of plastic waste pollution.
However, at present, the 'plastic limit order' has resulted in a decrease in effectiveness due to insufficient follow-up action. Compared with the European Union’s actions, China's plastic waste pollution prevention and control measures are somewhat 'first-in-first-to-last' regrets.
However, it is not too late to act now. In fact, in January this year, the National Development and Reform Commission had sought the policy of “Plastic Waste Pollution Prevention and Control” on the whole of its official website, indicating that work in this area has been initiated. Moreover, the National Development and Reform Commission While soliciting suggestions, the general idea of “disabling (restricting) a group of batches, replacing a group of batches, and standardizing a batch of “governance” has been clearly proposed. This is in line with the core content of the EU regulations, which shows that governments around the world are responding to plastics. There is a high degree of consensus on the basic principles and methods of environmental issues.
The EU Plastic Limit Act is worthy of our reference
Although the NDRC did not give any explanation on the timing of the introduction of the new policy, it is more important than the timing of the policy that the substance of the policy – that is, whether it can really “plastic” the 'virtuality', especially those most likely to cause environmental problems. Contaminated and hard-to-recycled plastic products are 'real-life'. In this regard, the EU's just-released bill proposal has three aspects that we can learn from.
First, it is necessary to ban and restrict the use of the list, but it should be based on a more substantial basis for investigation. The 11 categories of products listed in the EU legislative proposal, according to the survey data held by the European Commission, account for 70% of the marine plastic waste quantity. , indicating that if the effective control of these products and garbage, can significantly reduce the plastic environmental pollution.
In our country, in the process of policy formulation, we must not only absorb the experience of the European Union, but also the types of plastic waste commonly found in the reference environment (not only the oceans but also the land), the frequency of occurrence, and the degree of harm, but also consider other important factors such as recycling. Recycling industry processing technologies and capabilities, as well as consumer awareness and attitudes.
Second, strengthen the responsibility of producers. The EU laws and regulations proposal, as always, adhere to the extension of producer responsibility, requiring the producers to take economic responsibility for waste management and pollution control of banned or restricted plastic products. The logic behind this is not to increase the burden on enterprises. Instead, it encourages companies to make positive changes in product design, supply chain management and recycling, and finally through the reduction of plastic waste, to achieve the effect of paying less or less pollution, thus maximizing private interests and public interests at the same time. The plastic products incorporated into China's producer responsibility extension system cover only plastic components in automobiles, electronic products, and paper-based composite packaging, and there is still a long way to go in terms of governance requirements.
Thirdly, it is mandatory to identify plastic components and waste disposal information. This is a special management measure adopted by this European Union law proposal. The purpose is to make it clear to the public that the products originally thought to be non-plastic actually contain plastic components and are potentially harmful to the environment. , which in turn affects their buying tendency.
In our country, consumers do not fully understand the actual products containing plastics, such as wet wipes, tea bags, 'green' shopping bags, women's sanitary napkins, baby 'paper' diapers, some 'degradable' shopping Bags, whose components are made of plastic or plastic fibers, are also plastic waste after they are discarded. The new policy should require producers to fulfill their obligation to inform and ultimately promote consumers by explicitly limiting their consumption or discards. Green selection'.
Undoubtedly, the 'plastic limit order' is a policy that we must implement for a long time. In the new situation, the 'plastic limit order' should also advance with the times, actively absorb lessons from Europe and other places, and increase the stickiness of policies. Sex, eventually achieve the 'white limit' goal.