Reporter Peng Deqian

Today is the 50th World Environment Day, and this year's global theme is "Control Plastic Pollution". In recent years, many countries and regions have put "plastic restrictions" into action. What measures have been taken to address the characteristics of their respective urban lives? What twists and turns have been encountered in the implementation process? There are many stories.

Amdha is a small flower vendor in Chennai, one of India's largest cities. In the past, she needed to spend 15% of her profits on plastic bags, but now she uses broad green leaves picked from roadside trees to pack flowers for customers, saving 60 rupees (5.8 yuan) a day.

Amdha's city is located in Tamil Nadu, the southernmost state of India. In early 2019, a bill was passed here to ban the use of 14 types of plastics, which is also one of the contents of India's China-produced plastic restriction bill.

Plastics have been around for more than 100 years. If people were ecstatic about their birth at that time, now they have to worry about the "white pollution" caused by the unreasonable use of plastics.

It is predicted that by 2050, global plastic production will double to more than 1 billion tons per year. With this, land and ocean pollution will intensify.

With the improvement of global environmental awareness, countries have taken actions according to local conditions. How to effectively "limit plastic" has become a common test question.

France is "making great strides"

Spain temporarily encounters bottlenecks

From January 1, 2023, French fast food restaurants will usher in a new "plastic restriction" rule-disposable plastic tableware must be replaced with reusable tableware. This is another new rule in France to restrict the use of plastic products in the catering field after the ban on the use of plastic takeaway boxes and the prohibition of providing plastic straws.

In major supermarkets in France, people are beginning to feel the changes brought about by the requirement to reduce the use of plastic products - most products are clearly labeled with their classification and recycling methods; electronic products are marked with whether they are repairable and the accessories required for repair, providing a reference for subsequent product recycling; supermarkets also encourage bulk sales and reduce packaging.

Since 2021, more than 30 kinds of fruits and vegetables such as cucumbers and oranges in French supermarkets will no longer be packaged in plastic film, and consumers can bring reusable utensils to buy bulk goods.

In this regard, the French Ministry of Ecological Transition revealed that the country sells about 5.5 million tons of daily necessities packaging each year, of which 20% is plastic packaging, and is usually disposable. France is gradually increasing the share of products with reusable packaging, with the goal of reaching 5% of reusable packaging products on the market by 2023 and 10% by 2027.

"Manufacturers should reduce excessive packaging from the source, and local governments should improve the garbage classification system in public places, and carry out popular science activities for consumers to further increase the garbage recycling rate." The head of the French Consumer Association pointed out that the problem of excessive plastic packaging is prominent and the proportion of plastic recycling needs to be improved.

In recent years, France has increased its "plastic restriction" efforts and passed the "Law Against Waste for Circular Economy", which aims to gradually reduce the use of disposable plastic products, promote the development of alternative and reusable materials, ban disposable plastic packaging, promote packaging-free sales, etc., and promote the realization of the country's ecological transformation goals.

The new bill draws a blueprint for the comprehensive ban on disposable plastic packaging: by 2025, 100% recycling of plastic products will be achieved, and efforts will be made to reduce unnecessary disposable plastic packaging; by 2030, the sales of disposable plastic bottles will be reduced by half. The bill takes five years as a measurement stage, and quantitatively adjusts the corresponding policies according to actual conditions, and ultimately achieves the goal of reducing the use rate of disposable plastic products to zero by 2040.

Compared with France's "rapid progress", Spain's "plastic restriction" measures have encountered bottlenecks in the process of advancement.

Spain plans to implement a draft decree on packaging and packaging waste in December 2022, which prohibits the use of plastic packaging, recyclable packaging, biodegradable packaging or compostable packaging for fresh fruits and vegetables weighing less than 1.5 kilograms (except for packaging to prevent fruits and vegetables from rotting and damage).

This move was opposed by the Spanish Federation of Fruit and Vegetable Producers and Exporters, who believed that it would make it difficult to distinguish the quality of fruit and vegetable products and it would be difficult to provide consumers with relevant information about fruits and vegetables, thereby affecting the sales of fruits and vegetables, especially the sales of some smaller and easy-to-carry fruit and vegetable products. To this end, the Spanish Federation of Fruit and Vegetable Producers and Exporters called on the government to revoke the ban and wait for the results of the new EU legislation.

South Korea gradually establishes a management system covering the entire life cycle of plastics

Can a cotton swab threaten the offspring of sea turtles? A previous British study showed this possibility.

A cotton swab flushed down the toilet can easily escape from the garbage filter in the sewer and enter the river and the sea because of its small size. In this process, the cotton part will quickly degrade, and the plastic stem of the cotton swab will gradually break into tiny plastic particles. Plastic particles floating in the sea water are easily swallowed by fish and gradually enter the bodies of higher marine organisms along the food chain. Scientists have found that plastic particles may cause genetic mutations in marine animals.

Currently, the British government has introduced a series of new regulations to reduce the use of plastic products. The country's "plastic restriction" order will take effect in 2022 and will ban the use of plastic straws, plastic stirrers and plastic cotton swabs, of which those required for medical reasons will be exempted.

Countries have taken active actions in the field of "plastic restriction". Among them, a penalty proposed by South Korea has attracted considerable attention due to its severity. In order to reduce the use of disposable plastic products, the South Korean government stipulates that from August 1, 2020, if businesses directly provide disposable cups without asking customers for their opinions, they will be fined between 50,000 and 2 million won (about 300 to 12,000 yuan).

In fact, compared with the "high fines", the management system gradually established by South Korea covering the entire life cycle of plastic production, circulation consumption, and recycling is the key path to play a systematic "plastic restriction" role. Its ultimate goal is to cooperate with the industry by 2050 to gradually convert 100% of petroleum plastics into bioplastics and transform to a "plastic-free society".

For example, in the plastic production stage, a combination of policy and economic means is used to limit the use of plastics. In order to reduce the production and use of plastic containers, South Korea sets the proportion of plastic containers in the container products produced by container manufacturers above a certain scale.

It is worth mentioning that in May 2020, the country's Ministry of Environment signed an agreement with the association that produces plastic packaging for food takeout to reduce the weight of takeout containers by 20%. However, the thickness of takeout containers varies depending on the type and size of takeout food, so the thickness limit will be determined through investigation.

In the circulation and consumption stage, the revised "Resource Recycling Law" stipulates that a new disposable cup deposit system will be established from June last year. When consumers purchase products with disposable plastic cups, in addition to paying the product price, they must also pay a certain amount of cup deposit, which can be refunded by returning the used cups to the store.

Massive demand for "good plastics"

Inspiring new technologies and new industries

Since November 28 last year, representatives from more than 150 countries have held the first meeting of the intergovernmental negotiating committee in Uruguay in an effort to reach a historic global agreement to end plastic pollution. The agreement is expected to be reached by the end of 2024. During this period, one of the arduous tasks facing representatives from various countries is to meet and agree on rules and strategies for controlling plastic pollution.

In the view of Linda Goffey, chief scientist of the South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, this will be a game involving multiple parties, including the plastic-related industry. Some people hope to ban the use of disposable plastics and find safer alternatives, while others believe that the pollution problem can be solved by improving waste recycling.

Some situations in India's promotion of "plastic restriction" measures may be a projection of this disagreement at the practical level, and a microcosm of the problems faced by many countries and regions--

Although India has issued relevant bans, the results are not satisfactory. Due to the different ban regulations and banned products in each state, and the bans are often adjusted, consumers and retailers have expressed confusion and doubts about the banned and exempted content, as well as the enforcement and fines.

In addition, "plastic restriction" also faces opposition from plastic product manufacturers and wholesalers, among which the employment of workers in the traditional production field cannot be ignored. In the field of use, it is not easy to persuade consumers to give up the cheap and good plastic products that they are accustomed to using.

To this end, India is accelerating research on biodegradable and plant-based materials. A recent study published in the journal Food and Agricultural Sciences shows that a mixture of starch, protein and glycerol can be made into a film with sufficient strength and elasticity to serve as a substitute for plastic.

Today, vendors on the beach have begun to provide paper straws to customers who buy coconut water. "Fifty or sixty years ago, straws were made of paper," said Murugan, one of the vendors. "We are just going back to the past."

Some experts also pointed out that many farmers will benefit from the "plastic ban" order because the demand for natural materials such as banana leaves (liners), hollow papaya straws (straws), lotus and betel leaves (packaging materials) has greatly increased.

Like Amdeha wrapping her flowers with leaves in Chennai, the global "plastic ban" measures have caused many people to begin to change their lifestyles. Some industries may be disappearing, but new industries and technologies are also emerging.

In the field of degradable plastics as a substitute for traditional plastics alone, there are already several flowers blooming on the technology tree, each showing its own branch. According to the degradation method, degradable plastics can be classified into three types: photodegradation, biodegradation, and photo-biodegradation.

Photodegradable plastics are plastics that have photosensitive substances added to them. After absorbing ultraviolet rays in the light, the photosensitive substances in the plastic molecules are excited, the bond energy is weakened, and the long chains of polymer macromolecules are degraded into small molecular fragments, and the integrity is destroyed. The small molecular fragments continue to undergo oxidation reactions to break the molecular chains, undergo degradation reactions, and are eventually completely oxidized into water and carbon dioxide. Biodegradable plastics can be degraded by microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi, molds, and algae in the environment, and eventually decompose into water and carbon dioxide, participating in the carbon cycle in nature. Photo-biodegradable plastics are composite plastics that combine the first two processes. Under the conditions of light and biodegradation, they trigger a dual reaction.

The application scope of these "good plastics" has gradually expanded to packaging, fiber, agriculture, injection molding and other fields. In 2020, the production of biodegradable plastics in Western Europe exceeded 165,000 tons.

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