"Greenhouses are like oceans, and mulch covers a wide area". Mulch has been widely used in China, becoming the fourth largest agricultural resource after seeds, pesticides and fertilizers. Because of its effects of increasing temperature and preserving moisture, drought resistance and water saving, improving fertility and inhibiting weeds, it has become an important support for increasing agricultural production in China. And now, known as the "white revolution" of the mulch film because it can not degrade and remain in the soil, causing "white pollution" has been criticized.

According to statistics, only half of the agricultural film can be recycled every year, and 1 million tons of mulch is left in the ground. During the winter planting of melons and vegetables alone, the consumption of agricultural mulch in Hainan Province exceeds 10,000 tons, which is equivalent to half of the consumption of disposable plastic bags in the province every year. Over the years, unpicked plastic mulch remains in the land, causing the soil to harden.

Nowadays, both government departments and farmers are aware of the danger of plastic mulch residue. In some places, producers of agricultural products are required to remove and recycle agricultural film and other packaging materials for agricultural inputs in a timely manner. However, the reality is not optimistic. "I know this is not good for the land, but the waste mulch can not be sold for a few dollars, it is very troublesome to pick up, and it is not enough to hire labor costs." Some farmers' words are very practical.

The author believes that it is difficult to recycle plastic film, but it is not difficult after the establishment of market mechanism. To make the use, recycling, processing and utilization of mulch film become an industrial chain, so that there are standards and ways to consume, in order to fundamentally solve the residual problem.

First of all, we must unify the standard of mulch film. The current national standard for mulch film is 0.008mm, but it is allowed to float up and down 0.003mm, and in order to reduce costs, the most used film by enterprises and farmers is 0.005mm. This film is thin and fragile, once it is broken in the soil after use, recycling is basically impossible. It is estimated that if the thickness of the film is increased to more than 0.01 mm, it is easy to operate the agricultural film recycling machine, which will greatly increase the recovery rate.

Secondly, we must innovate methods. One way is to subsidize farmers by swapping old for new. Yuzhong County in Gansu Province to take this approach: provincial and county three levels of financial subsidies for mulch use, in the dry land per mu of the use of 12 catty mulch, about 70 yuan, financial subsidies more than 60%, farmers only 25 yuan, this subsidy mulch is called "index film". In the second year, the ratio of 2¡Ã1 to recycle the old film for a new film to buy indicators, to 12 catties of new film as an example, farmers need to buy 24 catties of old film and 25 yuan. This improves the enthusiasm of farmers to recycle old film, but also reduces the cost of using thick film.

The second way is to support the development of recycling enterprises and subsidize enterprises. Large provinces with film can be based on the use of plastic film around the country, in each township to establish waste plastic film recycling stations, to facilitate farmers to sell, by recycling enterprises at a certain cost to recover and pull away, enterprises bear the transportation costs. The key is to support the establishment of a group of plastic film recycling and processing enterprises, drive the surrounding farmers, and form an industrial chain of farmers' picking up, network recycling and enterprise processing.

From the perspective of technological progress, the use of degradable mulch will make the problem no longer exist, but its price is 2 to 3 times that of ordinary mulch. Because it is degradable and has a short shelf life, if the mulch is not sold in the current year, it can not be used in the next year, and it affects the promotion. In fact, for new products, the initial price is always high, and once the market opens, the cost of large-scale post-production will decline rapidly, coupled with more enterprises to join the competition, the price will naturally decline.

Therefore, the use of degradable plastic film is the trend of The Times, to speed up the development and support efforts, but after all, it still needs a long time. During this period, the prospect of residual film recycling is still broad. If we can leverage the initial financial subsidies and play the role of the market, the "white pollution" caused by mulch film is expected to be solved.

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