Tomorrow, the disposable foamed plastic tableware that has been banned for 14 years will officially usher in the "unbanning day". According to the decision of the National Development and Reform Commission to amend the relevant clauses of the "Guidelines for Industrial Structure Adjustment (2011 Edition)", disposable foamed tableware will be deleted from the "elimination product catalogue" and will be allowed to be produced and used at that time.

The reporter found that due to the low production cost and entry threshold, disposable foamed tableware has been "banned but not eliminated" for many years. After the ban is lifted, it will face four major problems, which once again arouses people's concerns about "white pollution".

Why is foamed tableware banned but not eliminated?

Yongqing County, Hebei Province is the largest disposable lunch box production base in North China, with hundreds of lunch box production companies and workshops. "It has been secretly produced, and it doesn't matter whether the ban is lifted or not." A person in charge of a lunch box company said.

Disposable foamed plastic tableware refers to various disposable tableware such as fast food boxes made of polystyrene resin as raw material, which is heated and melted in an extruder at high temperature, and then a foaming agent such as butane is added to extrude and pull the sheet, and then heated and blister-formed for a second time.

Due to the serious environmental pollution, the foam tableware drifted to Gezhouba again in 1998, causing the generator set to malfunction. In 1999, disposable foam tableware was listed as obsolete products, and its production and use were banned in China, but it has always been "banned but not eliminated".

The problem of "banned but not eliminated" has not been solved. This year, the National Development and Reform Commission deleted the disposable foam plastic tableware from the "eliminated product catalogue" when revising the guidance catalogue of industrial structure adjustment, citing multiple reasons such as "foam tableware can be recycled and reused after use, has been used in many countries and regions in the world, and can save oil resources", which means that foam tableware has legally returned.

Yu Wuqiang, general manager of Anhui Hefei Huanbao Paper Plastic Synthetic Materials Co., Ltd., said that a non-foam lunch box requires 20-30 grams of raw materials, while foam tableware only requires five or six grams, and the cost is very low. A production equipment with a price of more than 10,000 yuan can produce more than 5,000 in 8 hours. Therefore, foam lunch boxes occupy 60%-70% of the total market share of disposable lunch boxes in Hefei.

"A paper lunch box costs more than one yuan, while the wholesale price of a foam lunch box is only three cents. No one checks the foam ones, so they are always used." said a waiter at a Jinshan Dumpling Restaurant in Shijiazhuang.

Will the lifting of the ban repeat the same pollution mistakes?

Experts say that after the ban is lifted, disposable foam tableware will mainly face four major problems, such as difficulty in controlling raw materials and difficulty in recycling, and the public is worried about the reappearance of "white pollution".

Problem 1: Yu Wuqiang said that the foam tableware produced by regular factories costs about 1.2 yuan each. But some small workshops use recycled waste plastics, or even lunch boxes made of medical waste, which are only 6-7 cents each or even lower.

Problem 2: In addition to the difficulty in controlling the quality of raw materials, some companies also add industrial talcum powder, fluorescent brighteners and other additives that do not meet the "Hygiene Standards for the Use of Additives in Food Containers and Packaging Materials" in production, which bury hidden dangers for food safety.

Problem 3: Dong Jinshi, executive vice president of the International Food Packaging Association, said that polystyrene has poor heat resistance and will deform and release harmful substances when it exceeds 90¡ãC. Therefore, it cannot be heated in a microwave oven or steamer, nor can it be used to hold stir-fried dishes. However, most roadside fast food sales outlets in various places use foam lunch boxes to hold hot dishes, and consumers are accustomed to it.

Problem 4: Experts say that due to the large size, high transportation costs and limited reuse channels of foam tableware, most of them are discarded at will. In the urban garbage collection and transportation link, due to the lack of necessary sorting and other procedures, recycling and reuse are in name only. Many citizens are worried that the lifting of the ban will bring great pressure to environmental protection and may repeat the mistakes of the "white pollution" garbage siege.

The follow-up of the ban is lax management?

"Before the ban was lifted, it was banned but not eliminated. Will it still be lax management after the ban is lifted? What's the point of tossing back and forth like this?" Hearing that foam tableware has returned legally, many netizens expressed their concerns.

"After the ban is lifted, strict access standards must be implemented and network management must be carried out." Qian Guijing, vice president of the China Light Industry Federation and chairman of the China Plastics Processing Industry Association, said that currently five relevant industry associations have drafted four management systems, including industry management, enterprise access, quality management, and waste recycling and reuse, and submitted them to relevant departments of the State Council.

In response to the current recycling system that is urgently needed to be established, experts believe that the competent and supervisory enforcement departments for the recycling and utilization of foam tableware waste should be clarified in accordance with the principles of government support, enterprise operation, and participation of all people, and incentive policies to support the recycling and utilization of disposable foam tableware should be studied and introduced. The internationally accepted principle of "whoever pollutes, whoever is responsible" can be referred to, and the management department can charge appropriate pollution control fees to production enterprises according to standards as funds to support recycling and utilization.

Extended reading

Germany: Who produces and sells, who is responsible for recycling

Developed countries have developed a large number of new processes and products for foamed plastic tableware, such as low foaming, color film lamination, coating, high temperature resistance, UV protection, and oxidation resistance.

In the United States and the European Union, disposable foamed lunch boxes are mainly used for packaging of hamburgers, fast food, dances and picnics, as well as fresh food trays. The foamed polystyrene trays they developed are not only frost-resistant but also heat-insulating. They also added polymer materials to the foamed trays used in supermarkets, which can absorb the blood of meat. Adding antioxidant ingredients can extend the shelf life of meat packaged in such trays from 2 days to 7 days.

In Japan, foamed lunch boxes are basically not pure white, but colorful and very delicate. Some companies have even developed products that can withstand 125 degrees Celsius as packaging for hot and fried foods.

Japan requires people to send foamed tableware to specific recycling points after use, and to clean them before sending them. In Germany, the principle of ¡°whoever produces, sells and is responsible for recycling¡± is implemented.

Comprehensive reports from Xinhua News Agency, CCTV, People¡¯s Daily, etc.

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