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With China Plastic Machinery
With China Plastic Machinery
Plastic bags are made of general-purpose plastic resins or plastics and other materials. They are light, easy to shape, water-proof, air-proof, high strength, easy to obtain raw materials, low cost and convenient to use. They have become important items in residents' daily lives. However, they are difficult to degrade and easy to disperse, which has caused pollution to soil quality, wildlife safety, visual landscape, etc.
On December 31, 2007, China issued a "plastic restriction order": from June 1, 2008, the production, sale and use of plastic shopping bags with a thickness of less than 0.025 mm will be banned nationwide, and a paid use system for plastic shopping bags will be implemented in all sales places.
In 1933, a chemical plant in Northwich, England, accidentally produced the most commonly used plastic, polyethylene. But at that time, plastic was not used for daily life, but for industry and war.
The US and European patent applications related to the production of plastic shopping bags can be traced back to the early 1950s, but these patent applications were not in the shape of modern shopping bags. The modern lightweight shopping bag was invented by Swedish engineer Stan Gustav Thulin. In 1965, Thulin designed a one-piece polyethylene shopping bag for a Swedish packaging company, which applied for a patent. This plastic bag soon replaced cloth and paper bags in Europe.
In 1979, plastic bags, which already accounted for 80% of the bag market, became further internationalized and were widely introduced to the United States. At that time, plastic bag production companies promoted plastic bags as convenient and reusable. In 1982, two American supermarket chain giants, Safeway and Kroger, began to use plastic bags. More and more stores followed suit, and in just 10 years, plastic bags almost completely replaced paper bags.
In 1992, Sonoco Products Company in Hartsville, South Carolina, obtained a patent for the "self-opening polyethylene bag stack". The main innovation of this redesign is that taking a bag off the shelf opens the next bag in the stack, making plastic bags more convenient.
In 1997, Charles Moore, a navigator and researcher, discovered the Pacific Garbage Patch. Ocean circulation causes a large amount of plastic garbage to gather, and this garbage patch is the largest of the five major marine plastic gathering areas in the world, seriously threatening the survival of marine life.
In 2002, Bangladesh became the first country in the world to implement a plastic bag ban. Other countries subsequently joined the "plastic ban" ranks.
By 2011, the world could consume 1 million plastic bags every minute.
In 2017, Kenya implemented the strictest "plastic ban". By this time, more than 20 countries in the world have regulated the use of plastic bags by implementing "plastic restrictions" or "plastic bans".
Since November 1998, the Indian state of Maharashtra has banned plastic bags with a thickness of less than 20 microns and controlled the raw materials used to produce such plastic bags. Anyone who litters, uses or distributes plastic bags in the state may be sentenced to up to five years in prison and fined 100,000 rupees. Various countries have begun to follow suit.
In March 2002, Ireland enacted a tax on the use of plastic bags to curb the "crazy" use of plastic bags, and the funds collected were used for environmental protection projects.
In 2006, the Italian government enacted a "tax law" on plastic bag manufacturers, levying heavy taxes to curb the production of plastic bags.
On March 10, 2006, the Japanese Cabinet passed an amendment to the "Container Packaging Recycling Law."
On March 27, 2007, the San Francisco City Council voted 10 in favor and 1 against, and San Francisco became the first city in the United States to ban plastic bags. The bill requires large supermarkets and other retail outlets to ban plastic bags, and stipulates that all major supermarkets must remove all plastic bags currently in use within 6 months, while chain drug stores have a 1-year transition period.
On May 1, 2007, the Modbury Town Council in the United Kingdom decided that all 43 stores in the town would stop providing plastic bags to customers, becoming the first European city to completely ban plastic bags and sell environmentally friendly bags to customers instead.
From February 28 to March 2, 2022, the United Nations Environment Assembly was held simultaneously online and offline in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, with more than 2,000 representatives from nearly 200 member countries attending the meeting. One of the most important topics of this meeting was to address the global plastic pollution problem, discuss the formulation of the first global agreement to address the plastic crisis, and strive to formulate a legally binding international agreement by 2024 to address plastic pollution through a full life cycle approach.
Degradable plastic bags are plastic shopping bags made of films produced with biodegradable plastic resins as the main raw materials, and processed by bag-making processes such as heat sealing or bonding. Biodegradable plastic bags are mainly classified by material: polylactic acid + polyadipate/butylene terephthalate blend (PLA+PBAT), polylactic acid + polyadipate/butylene terephthalate + starch blend (PLA+PBAT+St), polylactic acid + polyadipate/butylene terephthalate + calcium carbonate blend (PLA + PBAT-CaCO3), etc. When purchasing degradable plastic bags or other degradable products, pay attention to whether the product label has the degradable JJ mark, and check whether the product material description is PLA, PBAT, PBS and other degradable plastics.
There are two types of civilian plastic bags: one is a polyethylene film bag, which is non-toxic; the other is a polyvinyl chloride film bag, which is toxic.
Polyethylene film bags feel lubricated. When a match burns a corner of the plastic, it is flammable, the flame is yellow, and it burns like wax drops, with a paraffin smell. However, polyvinyl chloride plastic film bags feel sticky, not flammable, and go out when away from the fire. The flame is green and has a pungent smell of hydrochloric acid.
Plastic bags contain: plasticizers, synthetic resins, stabilizers, colorants, fillers and flame retardants.
Plasticizers are chemical products and are widely used in plastic processing in industry. Any substance that can be added to polymers to improve the plasticity of products can be called plasticizers. There are many types of plasticizers. At present, there are more than 1,000 types in the world, and more than 200 commonly used varieties. Among them, phthalate plasticizers are the most commonly used plasticizers, accounting for about 80% of the total output of plasticizers. They have the advantages of good compatibility, comprehensive performance and low price.
Synthetic resin is an organic polymer compound composed of carbon atoms, hydrogen atoms and a small amount of oxygen atoms and sulfur atoms bonded by certain chemical bonds. The main widely used resins include polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polypropylene (PP), polyethylene (PE), polystyrene (PS), polytetrafluoroethylene (PFTE), polycarbonate (PC), polyetheretherketone (PEEK), hydrogel (acrylate), acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET).
Stabilizer is an auxiliary agent widely used in the deep processing of PVC resin. It can greatly improve the temperature resistance of the resin and alleviate the thermal degradation of the resin. It plays an important role in ensuring product quality, maintaining product color and avoiding damage to the screw of processing equipment after resin carbonization.
Any substance that can color plastics is generally called "plastic colorants". It is required to have high tinting strength and brilliance, good transparency, hiding power, dispersibility, weather resistance, thermal stability, chemical stability, electrical properties and environmental protection performance. There are two categories: inorganic pigments and organic pigments.
Fillers have been used since the beginning of plastic applications. Fillers were added to plastic bags to reduce costs. Now, reducing costs as an incremental material is only one of the purposes. More importantly, it is used to improve the heat resistance, chemical resistance, flame retardancy and conductivity of plastics.
Flame retardants are additives that give plastics fire resistance. Alumina trihydrate, also known as aluminum hydroxide, is the most widely used additive flame retardant.
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