On March 2, the resumed fifth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly passed the "Resolution on Ending Plastic Pollution (Draft)". The resolution aims to advance the global fight against plastic pollution, one of the most ambitious environmental actions worldwide since the 1989 Montreal Protocol.
What exactly does this resolution contain? How serious is plastic pollution in the world right now? Will our daily waste classification, recycling and other environmental protection consumption concepts be just a drop in the bucket for plastic pollution control?
1 Global focus on ending plastic pollution
The prevention and control of plastic pollution is the focus of this meeting, and a total of 3 draft resolutions are related to plastics. Rwanda and Peru proposed a draft to address the "full life cycle" pollution of plastics from production to waste management, and form a legally binding international agreement on plastic pollution; Japan proposed to establish an international negotiating committee to address the issue of marine plastics ; India proposed to focus on the pollution of plastic products such as single-use plastics.
Based on the above draft, the heads of state, environment ministers and other representatives from 175 countries finally approved and signed the resolution entitled "Ending Plastic Pollution: Developing an International Legally Binding Instrument". The resolution states that an intergovernmental negotiating committee will be established to reach an internationally legally binding agreement by 2024, covering the entire life cycle of plastic products, including production, design, recycling and disposal.
Liu Jianguo, a professor at the School of Environment, Tsinghua University, believes that this resolution reflects three consensuses: first, to establish an intergovernmental negotiating committee and put it into work this year; second, to focus on the full life cycle management of plastics, not just Terminal management, which means taking the reuse and recycling of plastic products into consideration at the design stage, and proposing diversified solutions to plastic pollution; third, strengthening international cooperation to promote technological upgrading, capacity building and technological Exchange and cooperation.
2 It is urgent to control plastic pollution
At present, the global plastic pollution situation is very serious. Professor Liu Jianguo told "News Hyperlink" that the current plastic pollution mainly comes from our consumption of plastic. In 1950, the world produced about 2 million tons of plastic annually; by 2017, that number had soared to 348 million tons and was growing. If left unchecked, annual plastic production will reach 700 million tons in 2024.
Manufactured from fossil fuels and possibly disposed of through methods such as open burning, plastics contribute to global climate change and air pollution. According to forecasts, if the global temperature rise is controlled within 1.5°C, by 2050, the greenhouse gas emissions from the production, use and disposal of plastics alone will account for 15% of the total allowable emissions.
Marine life is also a victim of plastic pollution. About 11 million tons of plastic waste enters the ocean every year, and more than 800 species of marine or coastal organisms ingest or become entangled in plastic. In addition, microplastics also threaten human health and the ecological environment.
Under such circumstances, it is urgent to formulate a legally binding international agreement to manage the full life cycle of plastics.
The global agreement will have a significant impact on domestic policies, and will most likely push the requirements for the use of recycled plastics. This is a great opportunity and a new chapter in high-quality development for the industry. At the (Xiamen) Plastic Recycling Week held by the Plastics Recycling Branch of China Synthetic Resin Association and New Observation of Waste Plastics, three heavyweight experts interpret and analyze the huge changes brought by the Convention to the industry in detail, and will focus on relevant issues (View →Agenda of the conference←).
3 Control plastic pollution, starting from daily
In addition to international agreements and regulations for the industry, the actions of our ordinary consumers also play a decisive role.
Professor Liu Jianguo mentioned that consumers' preference for environmentally friendly products will force the production side to carry out green and low-carbon transformation and upgrading. Moreover, if we can get rid of the one-time consumption habit of "use it and throw it away", it will greatly reduce the demand for plastic products, promote the development of green industries, and make the green lifestyle more popular.
The garbage classification that has been vigorously promoted in the past two years is also an important way to control plastic pollution. If waste can be sorted at the source, plastic waste can enter the recycling system cleanly and safely. A considerable part of the plastic waste entering the rivers, lakes and seas leaks into the environment because consumers fail to fulfill their classification responsibilities in certain links, and managers fail to establish a management system at a certain stage. If plastics can enter the waste management system, they will be recycled or incinerated to generate electricity, without causing significant pollution to the environment.
In recent years, China has also made great efforts in the control of plastic pollution, and issued a series of policy documents to promote the control of plastic pollution and strengthen the recycling of plastic waste. At present, we have made obvious achievements in plastic pollution control. As a developing country, we will make greater contributions to global plastic pollution in the future.
4 China, the challenges facing plastic pollution
Espen Barth Eide, President of the Fifth UN Environment Assembly and Norwegian Minister of Climate and Environment, said: "Plastic pollution is spreading like the plague in countries around the world. Plastic is the most durable and durable material we humans have ever produced. One of the products, but paradoxically, people usually throw it away after one or two use. If we incorporate plastic into a circular economy, plastic can be recycled over and over again.” As the minister said, the source of plastic pollution is High-quality recycling and reuse of waste plastic products, and according to statistics, the output of plastic products in China has shown a steady upward trend in the past ten years, as shown in the figure:
As can be seen from the figure, except for the establishment of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment in 2018, the market continued to be under a high-pressure atmosphere of environmental protection, and the operating rate of various industries in China was lower than in previous years. Affected by this, the total output of plastic products declined in that year, but in Under the baptism of environmental protection storm, the decline ratio is less than 10%. Since 2019, with the implementation of new hotspots such as "takeaway", "garbage sorting", "Belt and Road", "second child, third child", my country's production of related plastic products has achieved qualitative growth, and since 2020 The word "epidemic" seems to be around us from time to time, but the existence of "epidemic" is also a double-edged sword. The consumption of medical-related plastic products has risen sharply during the year. As of December 2021, the output of plastic products in my country is 8004.00%. 10,000 tons, which has doubled compared to ten years ago.
With the increase in the amount of plastic products, according to the latest data, the recycling rate of waste plastics is less than 30%. The main reasons are:
1. The design of plastic products is diverse and complex from material, color, label and even shape, which has a great impact on the efficiency and quality of recycling after waste, and greatly limits the improvement of waste plastic recycling rate.
2. In addition to food-grade and pharmaceutical-grade plastic products, the quality of other life-source plastic products is uneven. After recycling, the quality of the finished products is not satisfactory, so some practitioners reject the low-end recycled materials.
3. The emergence of garbage classification has solved the problem of difficult classification from the source, but even on the basis of clear classification, plastic products will still consume manpower for color sorting when they are used at the terminal due to the color difference. It is difficult to alleviate the cost of the domestic wool material market after the "plastic ban", and there is no major improvement in the cost pressure of the domestic wool market.
4. Although the country is vigorously promoting more professional recycling sites, according to the actual situation, it will take time for the nationwide promotion and implementation, and after the delisting of the older generation of practitioners in a short period of time, there will be a fault in the new generation of successors. Recycling companies often face the pressure of continuous environmental inspections every year. Under the impact of more and more realities, it is difficult to alleviate the problem of waste plastic recycling modules.
To sum up, the existence of the recycled plastics industry is to reuse more waste plastics and reduce environmental pressure, and the difficult problem of the recycling industry is always the high cost burden of recycled plastics enterprises. In terms of the general economic tone of ”, the spring of downstream demand has not yet been seen, and many recycling practitioners are faced with a situation of high cost and low profit. There is a long way to go in the follow-up, and it is expected that the country will gradually withdraw from a more standardized, procedural, and even scientific approach. Second, give them more incentive policies to stimulate the participation of a new generation of practitioners, so that waste plastics and recycled plastics practitioners can really contribute more powerful force to green environmental protection.
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