Text and photos by reporter Chen Hailing

Manufacturers have fought hard to expand into the Chinese market, but reporters have found that

Thirteen years ago, China had banned the widespread use of disposable plastic tableware, but white foam pollution has not stopped. China has become a global production base for white foam substitutes - environmentally friendly paper products, but ironically, more than 95% of the products produced in this base are exported to developed countries and regions such as Europe and the United States, and only a few can flow into the Chinese market. Our reporter found that under the pressure of the financial crisis, as one of China's strategic emerging industries, the new material environmental protection industry, China's paper packaging products companies (including listed companies) have a huge production capacity that urgently needs to be turned to the Chinese market.

Current situation 1: Environmentally friendly tableware requires a fee and is difficult to promote

Industry insiders who produce paper tableware have a habit of never using instant noodle packaging boxes and polyethylene plastic tableware, because they know that more than 99% of instant noodle box-shaped cardboard tableware packaging products must undergo a surface coating process to have waterproof and oil-proof functions, commonly known as "waxing".

In 1999, China's then Economic and Trade Commission issued a document prohibiting white pollution, commonly known as Order No. 6. In 2001, the corresponding government department issued Document No. 6 again, re-emphasizing the prohibition of white pollution. The main content of this document and the relevant white pollution control of governments at all levels is: prohibiting the use of disposable and difficult-to-degrade plastic products. This reporter saw that Order No. 6 wrote: This catalog eliminates backward production capacity, processes and products that violate national laws and regulations, have backward production methods, poor product quality, serious environmental pollution, and high consumption of raw materials and energy. "Disposable foam plastic tableware" is listed among the backward products, and the elimination period is 2000. The order requires local people's governments to urge local industrial and commercial enterprises to implement it, and the industrial and commercial administrative departments shall revoke the business licenses of enterprises that refuse to implement the elimination catalog in accordance with the law.

However, various disposable plastic packaging and plastic tableware are still in use.

Our reporter saw in Guangzhou restaurants, catering shops and shopping centers that many places use white foam tableware to pack food. Occasionally, some high-end restaurants use environmentally friendly paper lunch boxes to pack leftovers for guests, but some charge one yuan for lunch boxes.

Current situation 2: Labor costs doubled and export pressure was high

An industry insider surnamed Chen told our reporter: "I invested in an environmentally friendly paper packaging project a few years ago. Although the product was good, it was still no match for the cheaper white foam product. Within three years, the project went bankrupt and was forced to sell the factory to repay debts or change careers."

There are more than 100 paper tableware manufacturers in China now, but 99% of the market is in Europe and the United States. The US government's enforcement of the "ban on white" order is daunting. The initial warning, the second heavy fine, and the third revocation of the operator's business license have led to the market for such environmentally friendly products expanding year by year. In the United States, most disposable tableware is paper products. If a manufacturer provides polyethylene plastic tableware, it must be responsible for 100% recycling.

However, at present, in China, the sales volume of paper tableware only accounts for 2% of the disposable tableware market. The fundamental reason why China's environmentally friendly paper tableware is inferior to white foam lunch boxes in the disposable tableware market is the price. A white foam lunch box is only 0.1 yuan, while a paper lunch box is 0.25 yuan, which is 2.5 times the former.

In addition, the export pressure of paper tableware has increased, and enterprises hope to sell domestically. Since the exchange rate reform in 2005, the RMB has appreciated by about 31% against the US dollar, while the labor cost has almost doubled and is still rising. The main production materials are greatly affected by the international market, and the price is also high. The fluctuation makes the development of more than 100 Chinese manufacturers lack the ability to actively generate blood, and the international market competitiveness is obviously insufficient.

Countermeasures:

1: Enterprises change production lines to seek breakthroughs

Industry insiders believe that China's paper tableware market has great potential, and environmentally friendly paper packaging will sooner or later gradually shift from the foreign demand market to the domestic demand market. "Our company's 12th Five-Year Plan is to achieve a comprehensive transformation of equipment, labor and product structure. By then, the labor in our new production workshop will only account for 26% of the total labor in the original production, and gradually realize the vision of enterprise transformation and upgrading." A relevant person from Guangdong Oasis Paper Mold Packaging Products Co., Ltd. told our reporter. Oasis's product structure transformation means keeping up with market demand and constantly creating new products. For example, the production of iPhone5 mobile phone packaging boxes, with the same materials, is sold at three times the price of pallets. As the demand for paper tableware grows abroad, the company expects a 20% year-on-year increase this year, and sales are expected to exceed 200 million next year, an increase of more than 40% year-on-year.

Two: Experts call for strengthening the supervision of white pollution

Chen Kefu, a Chinese pulp and paper engineering expert and academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said in an interview with our reporter yesterday: "Although China has been making progress in the treatment of white pollution, compared with developed countries in Europe and the United States, there is still a lot of work to be done. First of all, society must raise awareness of white pollution. But at the same time, we must also see that it is unlikely to cancel plastic tableware in the short term, because the price of plastic tableware is almost twice that of paper tableware, and many Chinese people cannot afford paper tableware. Therefore, our government must strictly manage the use of plastic tableware, such as strictly stipulating that producers must recycle as many plastic tableware as they sell, as in some developed countries.

Three: Local financial departments come forward to call for tax cuts on behalf of enterprises

Our reporter learned that Shaoguan Finance Bureau issued Shao Cai Fa [2012] No. 27, calling on Guangdong Finance Department to adjust the export tax rebate plan for fully degradable non-wood plant fiber environmentally friendly products, suggesting: raising the current 13% export tax rebate rate to 17%; or suggesting setting up a new detailed tax number under the original tax item, with an export tax rebate rate of 17%, and the product name and remarks being "fully degradable non-wood plant fiber environmentally friendly products".

Oasis Company also called on the government to make corresponding adjustments to relevant export policies: "This year, there are still tax rebates or subsidies for ordinary home appliance exports and going to the countryside, but there is no such preferential policy for environmentally friendly paper tableware." Qiu Yazhen, head of the paper tableware department of Zhejiang Eurasia Light Industry Equipment Co., Ltd., said: "In the face of the pollution caused by the large-scale application of plastic tableware to the environment, the Chinese government obviously has to take real action to manage it, and these plastic tableware are not without substitutes now. The quality level of various paper tableware produced in China is already quite high, and they are all exported to the European and American markets. The key lies in policy. ¡±

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