Four Questions on the Lifting of the Ban on Foam Plastic Tableware

How to calculate the economic and environmental accounts?

In early 1999, the former State Economic and Trade Commission promulgated the "Catalogue of Eliminating Outdated Production Capacity, Technology and Products" (the first batch), requiring the ban on the production and use of disposable foam tableware and eliminating it within a time limit. This regulation is known as "Order No. 6" or "Ban White Order" in the industry.

On February 26 this year, the National Development and Reform Commission issued Order No. 21, making partial adjustments to the relevant items of the "Guidelines for Industrial Structure Adjustment (2011 Edition)", and deleted disposable foam plastic tableware from the list of eliminated products. This means that disposable foam tableware, which has been banned for 14 years, has been "lifted".

What is the reason for the "lifting of the ban"? Why was it banned in the first place? Is disposable foam tableware safe? What should we do after the ban is lifted?

Why was the tableware banned in the first place?

It was banned due to "white pollution", but it has been "banned but not stopped" for 14 years; there are currently hundreds of production companies, and the market consumes more than 10 billion pieces every year

Yang Huidi, a member of the Plastic Technology Cooperation Committee of the China Plastics Association, introduced that the main raw material of disposable foam tableware is polystyrene (PS) extracted from petroleum. In 1985, China introduced the production technology of foam lunch boxes from Taiwan and Japan, and the characteristics of foam lunch boxes such as pressure resistance, heat preservation and good rigidity met China's demand for disposable packaging materials.

Yang Huidi said that foam tableware began to be used on railways in 1986. At that time, the windows were not closed and there was no bag collection. The discarded lunch boxes seriously damaged the ecology and landscape along the railway. In 1995, disposable foam tableware was stopped in railway stations and cars. In addition, during the severe flood of the Yangtze River in 1998, foam tableware floated to Gezhouba, causing the failure of the generator set, which directly led to the issuance of "Order No. 6".

Plastic research expert and former senior engineer of China Light Industry Information Center Tang Saizhen also pointed out that it is the lack of management that has led to the proliferation of discarded disposable foam tableware. Dong Jinshi, Secretary General of the International Food Packaging Association, also said in a written interview with reporters that "white pollution" is the result of people's bad behavior of discarding garbage at will and the lack of an effective recycling system.

In fact, although it is banned, foam tableware still exists on the market.

Tang Saizhen introduced that foam tableware has a large market in places with a large number of floating populations because of its waterproof and oil-proof, strong rigidity, good heat preservation and suitable for Chinese food packaging.

Yang Huidi said that the market favor of disposable foam tableware also depends on its cost advantage. A foam lunch box only needs 4-5 grams of polystyrene, while a lunch box made of polypropylene (PP) requires about 20 grams of material. Therefore, the market price of a disposable foam lunch box is less than 1 cent, while a polypropylene lunch box is generally 5 cents.

Industry insiders revealed that after the release of "Order No. 6", foam tableware manufacturers went underground. Currently, most companies still use the production lines introduced from Japan in the early 1990s, and there is almost no improvement in product performance. The underground production companies and small vendors using foam tableware, which were originally difficult to enforce the law, have led to increased supervision and punishment costs. For 14 years, disposable foam tableware has been "banned but not stopped".

Ma Zhanfeng, Secretary-General of the China Plastics Association, said that there are currently more than 100 foam tableware manufacturers in China, accounting for about 70% of the lunch box market, and the market consumes more than 10 billion each year.

How to solve the recycling problem?

Experts believe that discarded foam tableware can be used to produce plastic daily necessities, building materials, etc.; some netizens believe that the recycling system is imperfect and lifting the ban will only make it more chaotic

Foam tableware is not easy to degrade, and it may not rot even if buried underground for many years. In this regard, Yang Huidi said that plastic products are relatively difficult to degrade. Without certain environmental conditions such as moisture and soil, it is difficult to degrade.

Tang Saizhen said that the most reasonable way is to establish a recycling system and start from management to avoid white pollution. Abandoned foam tableware can be processed into plastic daily necessities, building materials and coatings. "The current plastic recycling technology is very mature." Tang Saizhen said that the localization of processing equipment has reduced the price of equipment from 5 to 6 million yuan per unit to hundreds of thousands of yuan per unit. Tang Saizhen believes that foreign experience has proved that as long as management is in place, recycling foam tableware can save resources.

But Yang Huidi said that the recycling of foam tableware also faces some problems. Polystyrene foam is light and large in weight, and needs to be compressed during recycling and transportation, which is relatively expensive. In addition, there are many types of disposable tableware, which must be classified first to separate the degradable and non-degradable tableware, otherwise it will affect the quality of recycled products.

"Resource recycling is a public welfare work, and the recycling income is limited, so it needs policy support from the government." Yang Huidi said that in the 1990s, Shanghai once implemented the "3 cents project", that is, producing a lunch box and giving 3 cents to the government. The government used this money to subsidize recycling companies. However, this policy is not "one chess game for China". Foam lunch box manufacturers in the surrounding areas of Shanghai have squeezed the local market due to their cost advantages. Yang Huidi suggested learning from the experience of Shanghai's "3 cents project" and establishing a recycling and utilization system of "one chess game for China".

According to the explanation of the adjustment of the "disposable foam plastic tableware" item by the National Development and Reform Commission, the reasons for lifting the ban on disposable foam plastic tableware include "reducing raw material consumption, saving petroleum resources, and being recyclable after use". However, many people believe that the lifting of the ban cannot only be calculated as "economic accounts", but also "environmental protection accounts". Before solving the technical problems of degradation and establishing a complete recycling system, lifting the ban will make the "white pollution" situation more serious.

How can I use it to relax?

Foam tableware must be used scientifically, not suitable for microwave heating, and not suitable for holding high-temperature food

Some netizens are worried that foam tableware may release harmful substances after heating. Dong Jinshi believes that polystyrene has poor heat resistance and is not resistant to boiling water. Deformation will occur at temperatures above 70 degrees Celsius, and harmful low-molecular substances will precipitate when the temperature is too high. He also said that the density of polystyrene tableware after foaming becomes smaller, the holes become larger, and it is easy to absorb oil. With high-temperature heating, more harmful substances are precipitated into food and eaten by people, endangering human health.

Faced with the controversy over the toxicity of disposable foam tableware, the National Development and Reform Commission commissioned the Food Safety Institute of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention to conduct inspections in accordance with relevant national standards. The experimental results show that disposable foam plastic tableware meets the "Sanitary Standards for Polystyrene Resins for Food Packaging" (GB9692-1988) and "Sanitary Standards for Polystyrene Molded Products for Food Packaging" (GB9689-1988).

Tang Saizhen believes that the depolymerization temperature of polystyrene is as high as 280 degrees Celsius, and the residual styrene in the currently produced polystyrene resin is far lower than the national standard.

Tang Saizhen said that disposable foam plastics are not resistant to high temperatures, are not suitable for microwave heating, are not suitable for boiling water, and are not suitable for holding food at temperatures above 100 degrees Celsius, but this does not affect the use of fast food.

However, some people are not optimistic about whether the fast food industry and roadside restaurants can hold food according to scientific standards. Netizen "Run Fast" said: "Fast food emphasizes speed. Many dishes are cooked and then put into disposable tableware and sent away. Moreover, it is almost difficult to regulate this kind of use in the fast food industry."

Some people are also worried that foam tableware will produce highly carcinogenic "dioxins" during incineration. Tang Saizhen explained that one of the conditions for the production of "dioxins" is the simultaneous presence of benzene ring substances and chlorine (bromine) organic compounds under high temperature conditions of 300 to 400 degrees Celsius, and the above conditions are not met during the production, use and incineration of polystyrene foam tableware.

Tang Saizhen pointed out that the "safety" hidden danger of foam tableware mainly stems from the fact that some companies add inferior raw materials from recycled waste in production. "This problem is caused by poor supervision and has nothing to do with materials." She admitted that in order to reduce costs, some manufacturers use plastic waste for production, disrupting the market order and increasing consumers' concerns about safety.

How to control it after liberalization?

It is necessary to formulate more detailed product standards, strengthen supervision, improve industry self-discipline, and guide consumers to use it reasonably.

In an interview with reporters on the "lifting of the ban" on disposable foam tableware, the National Development and Reform Commission's Industry Coordination Department said that deleting this item from the elimination category includes a consideration that as the social environment changes, people's environmental awareness increases, the environmental protection and urban sanitation regulations system continues to improve, the behavior of throwing away garbage has been greatly reduced, and the waste recycling system has been gradually established. The environment that initially banned the use of disposable foam plastic tableware has changed greatly. It is understood that most countries and regions other than China, such as the United States, the European Union, and Japan, have been producing and using disposable foam plastic tableware.

The production was banned due to "white pollution" back then. Now the social environment has changed a lot. Tang Saizhen said that the railway windows are closed and there are better recycling procedures. From this point of view, the lifting of the ban is reasonable.

After the ban on foam tableware is lifted, it will face a series of problems. Yang Huidi believes that the first thing to be affected is the product standard.

Yang Huidi said that although there is currently a "General Technical Requirements for Plastic Disposable Tableware", the standard covers a wide range and includes all types of tableware except paper. She suggested that special standards for disposable foam tableware should be formulated on the basis of existing standards.

Secondly, quality control should be strengthened and industry self-discipline should be improved. She said that using waste plastics as raw materials to produce tableware and using additives such as fluorescent brighteners would hinder product safety and ultimately undermine the order of the industry. She also suggested that consumers should be guided to use disposable foam tableware correctly, abandon the bad habit of throwing away garbage at will, and help better recycling.

Some consumers are pessimistic about this, believing that the recycling of foam tableware is not as smooth as experts say. "Looking at the current recycling status of batteries and energy-saving lamps, we can imagine the future of foam tableware after the ban is lifted." Weibo user "Liusizhi" said.

(People's Daily)

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