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

"The implementation of the "plastic ban" has brought new opportunities for plastic product manufacturers!" said Liu Xingyan, the legal person of Chongqing Shengshi New Materials Co., Ltd. Recently, the company signed a contract with Chongqing Changshou Economic Development Zone to invest in a new chemical material project, with annual sales revenue exceeding 10 billion yuan after reaching full production. The project has a PBAT production unit with a production capacity of 240,000 tons/year. Not only will the output become the first in China and even the world, it will also have obvious scale advantages, filling the gap in biodegradable materials in the southwest region.

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

In recent years, plastic products that can be seen everywhere have made environmental pollution more and more serious. In June this year, the country launched a "plastic restriction order": by the end of the year, the production and sale of some plastic products will be completely banned, green plastic products will be promoted, new formats will be explored, and plastic waste recycling and disposal will be regulated, with special treatment for plastic waste.

It is understood that the first bans include non-degradable plastic bags, disposable plastic products in hotels, disposable plastic tableware, straws, and express packaging. Once these daily necessities that have permeated all aspects of people's lives are banned, how will they affect our lives and what challenges plastic product manufacturers will face are of concern.

Degradable materials are "hot"

A new study from Science shows that global plastic emissions may reach 53 million tons in the future, which is 6.6 times the United Nations standard (8 million tons).

A latest statistical data shows that currently, the world produces 120 million tons of disposable plastic products each year, of which only 10% are recycled, about 12% are incinerated, and more than 70% are discarded into the soil, air and ocean. The amount of agricultural film remaining in China's soil alone is as high as 350,000 tons per year, with a residual film rate of 42%.

With the development of the economy, environmental governance has risen to the top level of national development. As an important source of environmental pollution, the waste plastic industry has reached the point where it must be transformed.

What is even more worrying is that under the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic, the governance of plastic pollution has become even more difficult. According to data from China during the epidemic, China produced 116 million disposable masks per day in February this year, which is 12 times the production of medical masks before the epidemic. The output of medical plastic waste has also increased accordingly-during the peak of the epidemic this year, Wuhan's medical system produced more than 240 tons of disposable plastic medical waste every day.

According to a report by BusinessWire, a business analysis website, the global plastic packaging market size during the epidemic has increased from US$909.2 billion in 2019 to US$1,012.6 billion in 2021.

In order to deal with the excessive amount of plastic medical waste as quickly as possible, some improper methods of waste plastic treatment have emerged during the epidemic, such as mobile incineration, direct landfill or on-site incineration. However, according to a 2020 report by the World Wildlife Fund, even if only 1% of masks are improperly handled, it may produce 30 to 40 tons of plastic waste.

With the increasing severity of environmental pollution, the regulation of a comprehensive ban on plastic straws at the end of the year is another heavy blow to plastic pollution in China. Among them, there are also clear indicators for "reducing plastic" in the takeaway field: by 2025, the consumption intensity of non-degradable disposable plastic tableware in the catering takeaway field in cities at or above the prefecture level will drop by 30%.

"Under national policies, non-degradable and green environmental protection have become important directions for the development of the plastic industry." Liu Hanlong, Secretary-General of the Chongqing Plastics Industry Association, believes.

According to statistics from Huaan Securities, as of July 2020, 36 companies have been building or planning to build degradable plastic projects, with a total of 4.405 million tons of new production capacity.

Transformation faces challenges

Degradable plastic materials are popular among raw material companies, but mid- and downstream companies are facing difficulties.

"Polylactic acid is too expensive, and the cost is three times what we are producing now." Zhang Jia, who specializes in the production of environmentally friendly plastic garbage bags in Bayuquan District, Dalian, admitted that for small private enterprises like them, the cost of degradable materials is the most difficult thing to solve.

The plastic production plant run by Zhang Jia was opened in 2018, and private plastic companies like her are currently growing. According to Qichacha data, there are currently 2.83 million operating and existing companies related to plastic products in China. Among them, the number of registrations in 2019 was the largest, reaching 566,000, a year-on-year increase of 25.5%.

Although there are many enterprises, there is a problem of low concentration, especially in the daily necessities of the plastic industry, where there are a large number of small and medium-sized private enterprises, which face multiple difficulties on the road to biodegradable transformation. At present, plastic products are severely segmented and the market competition is fierce. Zhang Jia told reporters that the profit margin of their plastic factory is basically below 10%, and it can even be as low as 5% in the off-season. "My machine is 300,000 yuan, and it takes a long time for me to just make back the cost of the machine." Zhang Jia said.

In addition to the fierce competition in the market itself and the cost difficulties faced by processing enterprises in transformation, market acceptance will also become a new test. "The cost of biodegradable raw materials has increased, and the price of plastic bags will also rise by 2 to 3 times. If we sell this, it is not certain that anyone will buy it." Zhang Jia said.

For this reason, production companies have also explored the differentiation of their products, such as: the development of modified materials for new energy vehicles; the development of lightweight and high-strength materials for 3D printing; the development of highly flame-retardant and recyclable film-grade materials for packaging, etc.

Application of new technologies is valued

"The plastic products industry has gone through the stages of "whether there is" and "good or not", and is now developing towards the stage of "whether it is strong or not." Guo Yongxin, executive secretary general of the China Light Industry Federation, said at the China Plastics Industry Conference.

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

For a long time, the recycling and environmental protection of low-residual-value waste plastics has been a pain point and missing point for the entire industry. With the continuous research and development and technological breakthroughs in the pyrolysis and oilification technology of waste plastics, a new treatment method has been found. This year, the attention of foreign petrochemical giants including Sinopec and SABIC to this technology has increased unprecedentedly. Some environmental protection technology companies outside China have also made substantial technological breakthroughs. Large-scale clean production equipment for pyrolysis and oilification of waste plastics is about to achieve industrial production and is ushering in an explosive period.

"Circular economy is the future development direction of our plastics industry. Not only the plastics industry itself, but also the legal standards and operating mechanisms for plastic production, the government's measures for plastic recycling, the innovation capabilities of enterprises, and the society's acceptance of degradable plastics will become new challenges for the plastics industry." Liu Hanguang said.

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