After drinking bottled water, it is the habit of most people to throw the plastic bottle into the recycling bin. So, where does the recycled bottle go? On July 23, a reporter witnessed the green and low-carbon journey of a plastic bottle in Jinjiang city, Quanzhou, Fujian province.

Jinjiang Gangyi New Material Group Gangyi Fiber Products Co., LTD., early in the morning, the 10-meter-long trailer stopped at the gate of the factory, the car was full of waste plastic bottles squeezed into the "bottle brick". "Each of these cuboids is 1.5 meters long, nearly 1 meter wide and high, and 200 tons of bottle bricks are transported here every day." Chua Jinzhong, general manager of Kongyi Group, said.

Reporter with the transport vehicle came to the bottle film workshop, saw the huge bottle bricks were disassembled, colorful plastic bottles into the production line. On the production line, the stripping machine extrudes and frictions to peel off the label on the bottle, and the bottle then enters the sorting machine. The sorter automatically sorts the bottles into blue, white, green and variegated colors. After sorting, the bottle goes into a high-speed rotating crusher, where the crusher blade cuts the bottle into pieces with the cap.

Next, the pieces go into the cleaning machine to clean, sterilize and dry. Miraculously, the cleaning process, using the principle of different densities, incidentally separates the body fragments from the cap fragments. The bottle fragments are the main raw material of the company's products.

"In the past, these are manual, not only slow, energy consumption, water consumption is also high." At that time, it took 1.5 tons of fresh water and 270 kilowatt-hours of electricity to process a ton of bottles into pieces, and 75 workers were needed on the production line, CAI said. "In the beginning, there were many small, scattered and disorderly enterprises in this industry, and without sewage treatment, the cost was low." Chua Jin Zhong said.

With the deepening reform of the ecological and environmental protection management system, a number of "scattered and polluting" enterprises have been brought under control. "Many non-standard enterprises have been shut down, and those that remain must pay more attention to environmental protection. It can be said that the reform in the field of ecological and environmental protection has promoted the progress of the entire industry." CAI Jinzhong said.

Between talks, the bottle pieces are sent to a polyester workshop, where they are further dried in a giant cylindrical drum, then heated and extruded into a melt, fed into a spinning machine and turned into transparent fibers as thin as fishing line, which are drawn, crimped, shaped and finally cut into polyester staple fibers of varying lengths as needed. This kind of recycled fiber is used by other enterprises for the production of non-woven fabrics for shoes, automotive interior, etc., and is welcomed by many well-known brands.

In daily life, people lift a hand to classify the garbage "new fashion", so that all kinds of waste plastic bottles, so wonderful into a round of fibers, joined the green production cycle, and returned to our lives. "Bottle caps can be sold to other enterprises for processing into safety nets, and labels can be processed into slipper fillers. A plastic bottle, all used." Chua Kim Jong said.

More than 20 years ago, CAI Jinzhong and her husband set up a company, involved in the non-woven fabric industry for shoes. Later, they began to produce recycled fibers from bottles and other raw materials. In 2016, the whole bottle cleaning line was introduced to produce bottle pieces, extending the industry chain further upstream. From exploring entrepreneurship to winning the "national manufacturing individual champion" of non-woven fabrics for shoe materials, CAI Jinzhong felt the sense of gain brought by reform and opening up.

The progress of science and technology has injected new momentum into the development of Hong Yi Group. Under the Jinjiang Municipal Committee of Science and Technology Innovation, Gangyi Fiber has established scientific research cooperation with relevant colleges and universities to develop new products and new processes. After three technological upgrades, the whole bottle cleaning line has realized automation. "Today, by turning bottles into bottles, electricity and water bills are cut in half, and labor is cut by two-thirds," said CAI.

As a key enterprise of recycled fiber, Gangyi Group was rated as a national green factory and high-tech enterprise, and became a provincial circular economy demonstration pilot enterprise. Last year, the Group used 2.7 billion waste plastic bottles, more than 40,000 tons of waste cloth scraps, and produced about 100,000 tons of polyester staple fiber.

To promote green and low-carbon development, Jinjiang City issued Several Measures to Accelerate the Green and Low-carbon Transformation Development of Manufacturing Industry. Zhang Wenxian, member of the Standing Committee of Quanzhou Municipal Party Committee and secretary of Jinjiang Municipal Party Committee, said that the city will deeply study and implement the spirit of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee to promote the high-end, intelligent and green development of the manufacturing industry.

Facing the future, CAI Jinzhong is full of confidence: "The country attaches importance to green and low-carbon development, the concept of green development is increasingly popular, and the future of renewable resources industry will be better."

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