Recently, the China Chain Store & Franchise Association 2018 annual meeting of China's green consumption "sustainable development of the retail business practices research report." The report 'practice environmental responsibility' from 'green procurement and logistics'' to reduce food waste '' consumers Education 'multiple dimensions, etc., showing the current priority areas of retail enterprises in the development of strategies for sustainable development, as well as joint actions among which the promotion of' plastic limit 'implementation issues to explore in depth, for the company's future practice The sustainable development strategy provides powerful reference and reference.
With the development of new formats such as takeaways, express delivery, and e-commerce in recent years, the consumption of plastic lunch boxes, plastic packaging, etc. has risen rapidly, and around 20 billion plastic bags have been produced worldwide each year, making plastic pollution increasingly harmful to the earth. Obviously, this kind of non-degradable 'white pollution' has become one of the very serious global environmental conditions. China has been implementing the 'plastic limit order' since June 2008. It has been a decade now. However, plastic products are still the major Shopping and packaging tools, plastic bags have not gone far away from us, but they have seen a surge in usage. This embarrassing situation has had to cause deep reflection on all parties in society.
Even today, why are unqualified plastic bags still banned? It is not difficult to find that, compared with other materials, plastic bags do have product performance and price advantages that cannot be completely replaced by other materials. , It is also the result of superposition of new and old issues such as the production technology of packaging materials, production costs, and the supervision of government orders.
Lack of plastic substitutes is the primary reason
Over the past few years, although retail companies such as supermarkets and shopping malls have been active in promoting the implementation of the 'plastic limit order', they still inevitably face many problems in the actual implementation process. Among them, the great difficulty is the lack of suitable Alternatives. According to relevant survey reports released recently, over 85% of retail companies indicated that the lack of alternatives is one of the main difficulties in promoting 'plastic reduction', followed by the use of alternatives that face increased costs.
A large number of survey results show that most people still cannot completely resist disposable plastic bags. The reasons are nothing more than convenience and low prices. As long as there is demand, there will be a market. Production to meet the demand. In recent years, the demand for plastic packaging has not decreased but also reflected from the side of the plastic material is unmatched, difficult to replace the superiority.
From the perspective of vested interests, whether it is a consumer or a producer of disposable plastic bags, in fact, it is difficult to truly eliminate one step in place. To effectively reduce the environmental pollution of plastic bags, you need to reduce or eliminate plastic from the source. Pollution.
Therefore, the most pressing issue now is the need to develop better substitutes for plastic packaging. Whether it is material properties or production costs, it needs to be matched with plastic materials such as PE and PVC to become truly suitable alternatives. Generally speaking, it is how to technically develop low-cost alternatives.
Technology and cost pressures are fundamental problems
In response to global environmental problems, new materials developed worldwide are now emerging, such as biodegradable plastics, bioplastics, metal materials, food extracts, etc., which can replace some non-degradable plastic packaging to varying degrees. , New materials also have more or less restrictive factors. To completely replace the current mainstream plastic packaging requires further efforts.
For manufacturers, the obvious advantages of plastic bags are low cost and low technical cost. In terms of the production status of China's plastic enterprises, most manufacturers still prefer to produce disposable plastic bags. Some large companies also produce PBAT, etc. Degradable material shopping bags, but the share of the entire market is still very limited. Due to technical and cost constraints, biodegradable plastic bags in our country can not achieve large-scale, large-scale production and circulation. Therefore, To improve technology and reduce costs is a problem that must be solved when environmental substitutes are widely adopted.
Of course, with the development of new materials and advances in production technology, the gradual replacement of PE, PVC, LDPE, HDPE and other plastic packaging materials is only a matter of time. Since the implementation of the 'plastic limit order', the entire biodegradable plastic bags have also begun to be partially Supermarket promotion. For example, Aeon supermarket, China Resources Vanguard and other large supermarkets, as early as 2012 began to promote the use of biodegradable shopping bags.
At present, supermarkets including Wal-Mart, Yonghui, etc. have gradually adopted full-degradable material shopping bags instead of ordinary PE plastic bags. It is believed that in the near future, biodegradable plastic bags will become the shopping bag of choice for people and will be widely used. .
Conclusion
Although plastic mold reduction is currently facing serious challenges, there is no doubt that the “plastic limit” issued to curb 'white pollution' has an important role in reducing plastic pollution and enhancing people’s awareness of environmental protection. The technological innovation in the production of plastic products and the introduction of alternative new products are critical to the 'limited plastic' operations. Therefore, we must seriously reflect on the 'limited plastic' practice for ten years, and it is still necessary to define the 'plastic limit' in the future. Continue to implement, and this is a gradual and long-term process. We need countries, businesses and individuals to be prepared to work together in order to truly realize the theme of 'beautiful China, I am the actor'.