Policies, Standards, and Requirements for Degradable Plastics in China
1、 Industrial policy
Internationally, in October 2019, the European Parliament passed a bill to control marine plastic waste, limiting the use of six types of plastic waste, such as cotton swabs, disposable knives and forks, disposable dinner plates, disposable straws, beverage mixing rods, and balloons, to a 25% reduction by 2025.
On January 16th, 2020, the Chinese government issued the "Opinions on Further Strengthening the Treatment of Plastic Pollution", which is the first national plastic reduction policy in China. Local governments have prepared specific implementation plans. On February 21, 2019, the Hainan government issued the "Implementation Plan for the Comprehensive Prohibition of the Production, Sale, and Use of Disposable Non degradable Plastic Products in Hainan Province", which stipulates that the production, sale, and use of disposable plastic bags and disposable plastic tableware will be completely prohibited in Hainan Province by December 2020. Before the implementation of the "Opinions on Further Strengthening the Prevention and Control of Plastic Pollution" in 2020, 80% of degradable products were exported. According to the "Opinions", by 2020, 2022, and 2025, degradable plastic products will be mainly used for domestic demand, and biodegradable plastics will be used for disposable plastic bags, disposable tableware, and fast packaging bags. Different provinces and cities have also issued policies prohibiting the use of non degradable disposable plastics and promoting the use of degradable plastic bags.
The government has issued a series of industrial policies to encourage enterprises to produce degradable plastics and guide the market to use degradable plastics.
In September 2021, in the 14th Five Year Plan, a policy on the use end of degradable plastics was introduced. The National Development and Reform Commission has issued the "14th Five Year Plan" for the Development of Circular Economy, proposing to "adapt measures to local conditions, actively and steadily promote degradable plastics, improve the standard system, improve inspection and detection capabilities, and standardize the application and disposal". Guide the standardized, orderly, rapid, and healthy development of the biodegradable resin industry.
The policy issued by local governments, such as the Shenzhen Municipal Bureau of Ecological and Environmental Protection, is to subsidize 50% of the research and development of degradable plastics for research and development projects, with a maximum of no more than 10 million yuan; It is planned to build two degradable plastic industry demonstration bases, with the government investing in platform construction funds, and providing appropriate subsidies for rent. Shenzhen supports the research and development and promotion of degradable and alternative plastic products. Shenzhen has organized and implemented the first batch of support plans for the development of strategic emerging industries in 2020, established special funds for circular economy and energy conservation and emission reduction, and supported degradable plastic enterprises to apply for a green manufacturing system. With the support of this policy, many enterprises in Shenzhen have made breakthroughs in the production technology of degradable plastics.
2、 Standards
According to different degradation environmental conditions, biodegradable plastics can be divided into seven degradation environments: soil degradation, compostable degradation (including traditional composting and courtyard composting), freshwater environmental degradation, seawater environmental degradation, sludge anaerobic digestion, high solid anaerobic digestion/outdoor degradation.
The testing methods for degradable plastics in different environments are different. China's testing standards for biodegradable plastics have made rapid progress. Except for the lack of standards for seawater and outdoor environments, most standards have been established, and international standards have been benchmark.
For the above biodegradable resin varieties, complete degradation can be achieved in a very short time, and can meet international mainstream degradation standards. The EU degradation standard EN13432 stipulates that the relative degradation rate is at least 60% of the total organic carbon in the sample degraded to carbon dioxide under the conditions of industrial compost (58 ± 2 ℃) for 180 days, or the degradation rate of the sample cannot be lower than 90% of the reference material such as cellulose, which can be considered as complete degradation. The above five major varieties can meet the EU standard in terms of degradation performance.
In March 2001, the National Center for Plastic Product Standardization established a Biodegradable Plastics Working Group (BMG) in Beijing. Under the organization of the working group, ISO methodological standards have been standardized into national standards such as ISO14851:1999, ISO14852:1999, and ISO14855:1999.
GB/T 20197-2006 defines the definition, classification, labeling, and degradability requirements of degradable plastics, but this standard has a history of nearly 15 years, and its applicability has decreased, especially for photooxidative degradable plastics. In 2019, the European Union banned the use of photooxygen degradable plastics in accordance with Directive 2019/904.
China has also formulated many standards for biodegradable plastic products
In September 2020, the China Light Industry Federation issued the "Guidelines for the Classification and Labelling of Degradable Plastic Products", which is the only label for degradable plastic products in China . The label is marked with an arrow circle, a double "J" (abbreviated as "degradation" in Chinese pinyin), material abbreviations (such as PBAT, PLA, PBS, etc.), and six degradation environment names (optional), indicating the environment where plastic products are most susceptible to degradation. The green smiling face pattern is composed of national standards and product names. The circle with an arrow indicates that degradable plastics can also be recycled and reused, and even if leaked into the environment, they can be completely degraded and reused for absorption by the environment. "JJ" mimics the human form, adopting a structural layout that is small on the left and large on the right, reflecting the design concept of "From childhood to old age, everyone cares for the environment".
3、 Demand Analysis
Since 2003, the consumption of biodegradable plastics has increased 20-fold. The first production line of PLA was put into production in 2008, and the production capacity has continuously improved since then.
In 2019, the actual production of synthetic degradable resins in China is estimated to be 101600 tons. The market supply of PLA resin has been in short supply since 2019, and it is expected that this situation will continue in the next five years. Moreover, the price of PLA is about 16000-3000 yuan/ton, and the price of PBAT is about 21000-25000 yuan/ton, while the prices of PE and PP are 8800-12000 yuan/ton and 6700-8500 yuan/ton, respectively, which is 2-3 times the conventional polyethylene film material plastic, seriously affecting the promotion and application of PLA downstream products.
Due to the limitations of synthetic technology, product markets, and capital turnover, some enterprises only operate at half their capacity. Currently, only PLA, PBAT, and PCL have achieved large-scale production.
Market demand: According to statistics, there are a total of 135000 tons of domestic PLA resin of 110000 tons and imported PLA resin of 25000 tons. However, in 2020, China's market demand is at least 200000 tons, and there has been a serious shortage situation.
Large multinational companies in the packaging consumer goods, retailers, and food service industries have also made progress or announced plans to significantly expand the use of biodegradable plastics, which has driven demand for biodegradable packaging for fresh agricultural products, food utensils, and compostable bags.
Flexible packaging uses nearly 500000 tons of biodegradable bioplastics worldwide. In many countries, agricultural mulch is used to increase crop yields. Traditional mulch films are difficult to collect from the field, leading to serious plastic pollution in the soil. Therefore, biodegradable mulch films have been tested and developed as an alternative. China has the largest mulch area, using up to 2.5 million tons of mulch annually. Assuming that 10% of the mulch is converted into biodegradable mulch each year, China alone requires more than 200000 tons of biodegradable mulch each year.
With the implementation of the policy of prohibiting the use of disposable plastics and the ban on the use of non degradable plastics for online commodities and food distribution e-commerce by 2025, the demand for compostable bags has increased. In 2019, the number of food distribution users reached 460 million, while urban residents accounted for 848.43 million, accounting for 53.9% of the urban population.
In 2019, driven by national environmental protection policies, the price of PLA increased from a maximum of 19000 per ton to 48000 per ton. In terms of degradable plastic products, compared to polyethylene plastic mulching films, the price of PBAT resin is 300% higher, the density of PBAT is 30% higher, and the thickness of mulching films is 20% higher. The overall price of degradable mulching films is about 3.5 times that of ordinary polyethylene mulching films. Price is one of the main factors restricting the universal application of biodegradable resins.
PBS biodegradable resin synthesis technology: PBS products have experienced four stages: PBS, PBSA, PBST, and PBAT. Currently, PBAT is the main product, and the synthesis technology for the four varieties has matured. Tsinghua University and the Institute of Physics and Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences have mastered the core technology. Among the projects that have been put into production, Tunhe and Anqing Hexing in Xinjiang use Tsinghua technology, Hangzhou Xinfu, Shanxi Jinhui and Shandong Huiying use the technology of the Institute of Physics and Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Jinfa Technology uses its own technology.
For various biodegradable resin upstream synthesis raw materials: PLA includes starch, lactic acid, lactide, glycolide, and catalysts; PBS includes butanediol, succinic acid, adipic acid, terephthalic acid, and catalysts; PPC includes carbon dioxide, propylene oxide, ethylene oxide, phthalic anhydride, and catalysts; PCL includes ε Caprolactone and catalyst, PHA class for starch and bacteria.
Using modification technology can improve the imperfections of various original properties of biodegradable resins, such as heat resistance, toughening, reinforcement, flame retardancy, nucleation, and filling of PLA. Significant achievements have been achieved during the 13th Five Year Plan period. In particular, PLA and PBAT are filled with low-cost materials such as starch, straw, bamboo powder, calcium carbonate, and talc powder, which can significantly reduce costs by 10% to 40% without affecting their complete biodegradability. It is recommended to promote their application on a large scale.
