In January this year, the upgraded version of the "Plastic Ban" officially took effect in China, requiring catering companies to prohibit the use of non-degradable plastic bags for takeout and dine-in packaging services. Recently, reporters visited and found that some catering companies have gradually replaced disposable plastic packaging boxes with environmentally friendly lunch boxes. So, what changes has the new version of the "Plastic Ban" brought to businesses and consumers? Let's take a look at the reporter's visit and investigation in Beijing.

In the takeaway packaging area of a chain restaurant in Beijing, yellow lunch boxes of different models and styles are placed. The person in charge of the company's takeaway told reporters that these yellow lunch boxes are all made of corn starch as raw materials and are biodegradable lunch boxes. Since January this year, the takeaway packaging lunch boxes of all the company's stores have been gradually replaced with packaging of this material.

In another catering store, the takeaway lunch boxes are replaced with aluminum foil materials that take into account environmental protection, heat preservation and sealing. The person in charge told reporters that in addition to disposable plastic lunch boxes, they plan to achieve replacement and upgrading of all takeaway supporting packaging next year.

It is understood that the mainstream substitutes for disposable plastic lunch boxes for takeout are aluminum foil boxes, degradable plastics and paper boxes, while tableware mostly uses degradable plastics or wooden products. In addition, the reporter noticed that in addition to the replacement of materials, the awareness of catering companies to reduce the use of disposable tableware is also gradually increasing. Some consumers said that when the "Do you need tableware" option function of the takeout platform was just launched, many catering businesses often "ignored" the note "No tableware required" in the order. With the implementation of the policy, this situation has improved significantly.

Consumer: Basically, as long as I choose not to use tableware for the takeout meals I ordered, there is indeed no tableware after I get it. I can clearly feel that the merchant should pay special attention.

Consumer: There are more and more environmentally friendly materials. I think basically there will be a sign under the packaging that can be recycled and degraded.

During the interview, the reporter learned that the upgrade of the "Plastic Restriction Order" directly drove the growth of takeout packaging product orders, which also brought about a general increase in prices from upstream related raw materials to downstream takeout packaging products. The reporter found that most of the companies currently promoting environmentally friendly packaging are leading chain catering companies, while some other small and medium-sized catering companies are facing cost pressure. So, what are the difficulties in promoting environmentally friendly packaging for catering takeout under the upgraded "plastic restriction order"?

Cheng Fan is a distributor of takeout packaging products, mainly supplying takeout packaging to catering companies in Beijing. He told reporters that since last year, many of his customers have gradually replaced plastic with environmentally friendly packaging. Since the beginning of this year, due to policies and an increase in takeout orders, the price of raw materials for packaging has soared. For example, the price of degradable plastic polylactic acid PLA has risen from 20,000 yuan per ton at the end of 2019 to about 40,000 yuan per ton. Despite the sharp rise in raw material prices, the company's order volume has continued to increase.

Cheng Fan introduced that although the upstream environmentally friendly packaging raw materials have been in short supply recently, compared with the raw materials of plastic lunch boxes, their cost and performance have no advantages. For example, the cost of lunch boxes made of environmentally friendly packaging materials is generally 30% to 100% higher than that of ordinary plastic lunch boxes made of polypropylene. At the same time, there are problems such as not being able to withstand high temperatures and not being able to hold soup in different degrees. Therefore, the main batch replacements on the market are still a few chain brands, and most merchants' lunch box packaging is still mainly polypropylene plastic.

In this regard, industry insiders said that reducing costs mainly depends on expanding production scale. However, from the current technical level, the production and manufacturing processes of some alternative products are complicated and the requirements for raw materials are harsh, resulting in excessive one-time investment. In addition, some substitutes have certain defects in performance to a greater or lesser extent, and the industry technical standards are not yet clear. Therefore, it will take some time to achieve high-quality industrial scale expansion.

Liu Jianguo, professor at the School of Environment, Tsinghua University:This market itself is strictly a policy (oriented) market, and (currently) it is not a rigid demand. It is necessary to avoid some counterfeit and shoddy products from entering the market during this process, which will cause bad money to drive out good money, and then there will be a mixture of good and bad.

Wang Zhanjie, Vice Chairman of China Plastics Processing Industry Association:Many enterprises in the industry, some institutions outside the industry, including some financial systems, have entered this field, but in fact, I suggest that everyone has a certain technical reserve and a certain market foundation, calmly and objectively analyze the short-term demand and long-term market capacity of the market, and enter scientifically. If you rush in, it will seriously exceed the demand in the future, which may cause a new round of resource waste.

Faced with the difficulties such as cost and technology faced by takeaway environmentally friendly packaging in the promotion, how do packaging companies deal with it? What solutions does the industry have?

As the Spring Festival approaches, the production line of this packaging company in Beijing is still stepping up production. Cui Weixing, the production manager, told reporters that in recent months, orders for green and environmentally friendly packaging have increased rapidly, and the six polylactic acid degradable tableware production lines in the workshop have been running at full capacity. Although there are many orders, due to the continuous price increase of raw materials, their production costs remain high, so the company decided to automate the production line after the Spring Festival.

In addition, many companies are also reducing costs by developing new materials. At a packaging company, the person in charge showed reporters a set of biodegradable tableware samples made of a blend of polylactic acid and bamboo powder.

Experts believe that to overcome the cost problem, it mainly depends on the continuous innovation of technology and production processes, as well as the expansion of the scale of the industry. At the same time, relevant industry standards must keep up. To reduce the ecological and environmental pollution caused by disposable packaging products, we should not only stop at replacing materials, but also work together in recycling and reuse.

Liu Jianguo, professor at the School of Environment, Tsinghua University:Replacement does not mean that the responsibilities of each of our stakeholders, including our upstream and downstream companies, can be reduced. It does not mean that after these things are replaced, I can discard them at will. Sometimes we place special emphasis on replacement, which may make excessive consumption feel at ease. I think this is also a tendency we should avoid.

Plastic Industry Video