Will be officially implemented! Plastic ban: Henan new regulations!

Today, the transition period is coming to an end, what is the landing effect of the "ban on plastic" in Henan Province? How should we strengthen supervision in the future to ensure that non-degradable disposable plastic products are prohibited and limited? From December 7 to 9, the reporter entered the factory, went to the field, visited the person in charge of the enterprise, farmers, as well as the relevant regulatory authorities and scholars, and interviewed the story of the implementation of the "ban on plastic" in Henan Province, the difficulties, and the countermeasures that should be taken in the future.

Rapid transformation of production enterprises to "take a new road"

On December 8, the production workshop of Henan Special Chuang Biotechnology Co., LTD., located in the advanced manufacturing development zone of Xunxian County, Hebi City, was a busy scene, with machines running at full capacity and workers working overtime. After granulation, film blowing, printing, bag making and other links, batches of customized "biodegradable" express packaging bags are off the line, ready to supply to major express companies. Sun Xiaolei, head of research and development of the company, said that a machine can produce 180 degradable plastic bags in one minute, and the bag workshop has a total of 100 machines, producing 18,000 in one minute. He said: "The degradable packaging bag we produce can be fully degraded into water and carbon dioxide in 180 days under compost conditions, which can not only achieve zero residue and zero pollution, but also increase soil fertility." At present, the company has become a green express packaging supplier for China Post, Jingdong, SF Express, Getu, 'Three Tong Yida' and other express companies." In order to continuously optimize the core technology of products, they jointly developed bio-based degradable materials and their products with a research center in Germany, and established joint laboratories with Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Zhengzhou University and other universities, forming a research and development team of 26 people, and successively obtained 8 national patents, including 3 inventions of degradable material modification technology. The company has obtained 26 international and domestic authoritative certification certificates such as the EU EN13432 degradation detection certificate, ranking the leading level in the domestic industry, and the products produced by the company are exported to the Philippines, Thailand and some European and American countries. At the beginning of 2020, the "Opinions of the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Ecology and Environment on Further Strengthening Plastic Pollution Control", known as the "most strictly prohibited plastic order in history", was issued and implemented, proposing that by 2025, the production, sale and use of some plastic products should be banned and restricted. The use of non-degradable plastic bags is prohibited in the market markets in the built-up areas of cities at or above the prefecture level and in the built-up areas of county seats in coastal areas. With the implementation of the plastic restriction and ban, bio-based degradable materials have become a blue ocean with billions of development potential and broad market prospects. After several years of unremitting efforts by the government and degradation backbone enterprises, Henan Province has become a rare complete province in the upper, middle and downstream degradable plastics industry chain, and is in a leading position in the country. According to industry statistics, Henan plastic ban after the replacement market demand is estimated to be more than 300,000 tons, after the rapid development in recent years, so far, Henan Province in the middle and upper reaches of raw materials has been built capacity of 280,000 tons, downstream products have been built capacity of about 1 million tons, production capacity can fully meet the ban on plastic disposable plastic FMCG degradation replacement market demand. With the increase of supervision and punishment for violations of the plastic limit next year, the demand for degradable plastic products will see explosive growth. To this end, plastic enterprises in Henan Province have expanded production to meet market demand.

Consumer firms are reluctant to turn

On December 9, in a garlic field in Gaoyang town of Qixian county, the garlic seedlings are growing robustly, and the mulch covering the field is clearly visible. Mr. Gao, the contractor of the land, said that these mulching films are degradable mulching films, not only do you not need to recycle these mulching films after collecting garlic, but also strong mulching films. With degradable mulch, garlic grows better and yields more. He recalled that in the past, when planting garlic, it was covered with non-degradable mulch, and after collecting garlic, it was very difficult to pull out all the mulch that was rotten in the field. If you don't pull it out, it affects the growth of the next crop. After pulling it out, pile it to the roadside or the edge of the ditch, causing white pollution. If there is no government subsidy, are you willing to buy degradable mulch? Mr. Gao answered "Yes." He said that although the price of degradable mulch is high, the benefits generated are higher compared to the benefits. The head of the business of Henan Agricultural Ecology and resource Protection Station said that the focus of Henan's promotion is to develop new production habits through the use of large farmers, so as to drive more small farmers to use thick-strengthened mulch film and fully biodegradable mulch film. Beginning in 2022, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs has promoted and demonstrated thickened high-strength mulching film and fully biodegradable mulching film in the country's large mulching provinces, and Henan Province is one of them. Among them, farmers who use thickened high-strength mulch and fully biodegradable mulch will be subsidized per mu in accordance with a certain proportion. Today, Henan Province has accumulated more than 6 million mu of demonstration and promotion. The Regulations of Henan Province on Prohibiting and Restricting non-degradable disposable Plastic Products put forward clear requirements for agricultural film, and agricultural film producers should produce agricultural film in accordance with relevant national standards to ensure product quality. Sellers of agricultural film shall not purchase and sell agricultural film that does not meet mandatory state standards. In the actual production process, the thickened high-strength mulch film has been generally welcomed by farmers, and the degradable mulch film still needs a long time to promote and publicize. Why the different results? Many farmers say price is the main reason. Thickening high-strength mulch film because it is relatively thick, high strength, will not be broken into pieces in the ground, as long as a pull, the whole piece of mulch are pulled up, unlike the past cleaning time-consuming, simple and convenient. The price of degradable mulch is more than double that of thick high-strength mulch, the benefit of agricultural production is not high, and if the benefit is worse in a disaster year or when the price is low, farmers are more reluctant to use degradable mulch. Henan is a large agricultural province, the annual need to mulching crops planted area of more than 8 million mu, mainly garlic, peanuts, potatoes, vegetables and high value-added cash crops, mainly concentrated in Kaifeng, Puyang, Shangqiu, Zhoukou, Nanyang, Xinyang, Zhumadian and other places. In interviews, some farmers were sensitive to the high price of degradable mulch, while others thought the price was nothing compared to the benefits. In actual production, there are many cases of increasing production and income because of the use of degradable plastic film. In Henan, the use of plastic products is not only concentrated in agricultural mulch, but also concentrated in supermarkets, pharmacies, market markets, catering, accommodation, exhibitions, e-commerce, express logistics, cultural tourism and other fields. For price-sensitive occasions, such as small restaurants, small supermarkets, small night markets, small vendors, small farmers' markets and other "five small occasions", non-degradable plastic products still exist in large quantities, and businesses provide them free of charge and users use them at will. In some large supermarkets, farmers' markets, snack shops, and Dennis supermarkets in Zhengzhou City, the degradable plastic bags used are clearly priced, with large prices of 0.6 yuan and small prices of 0.5 yuan, and some places are 1 yuan a bag. When some consumers buy goods, they are willing to spend money to buy a degradable plastic bag, and more consumers are not willing to spend money to buy. Some supermarkets provide both degradable and non-degradable plastic bags, non-degradable free use, degradable consumers to buy. In this case, consumers are more reluctant to buy degradable plastic bags.

Create a virtuous circle to achieve fundamental change

Some consumers say why pay for plastic bags when supermarkets or farmers' markets should offer them for free? Some supermarket officials said that consumers use tens of thousands of plastic bags every day, if all use degradable plastic bags, the cost of small profits for supermarkets is huge. If biodegradable plastic bags were as cheap as non-biodegradable plastic bags, consumers would not have to pay for them separately. Manufacturers also have their reasons. The cost of degradable plastic products is high, and the price is naturally high. If the society is widely used, the quantity of nature individual price is low. It seems to be a dead end. One side said it was not necessary because of the high price, the other side said it was high because it was used less. In this regard, Liu Dongliang, senior engineer of Zhengzhou University of Light Industry and secretary-general of the degradable Plastics Committee of Henan Plastics Association, said that to crack this "dead situation", on the one hand, enterprises need to strengthen research and development to reduce the cost of degradable plastic products; On the other hand, it is necessary to strengthen supervision, in accordance with the requirements of the "Regulations on the prohibition and restriction of non-degradable disposable plastic products in Henan Province", the "ban on plastic" is implemented, so as to form a virtuous cycle and achieve a fundamental change from "want me to limit" to "I want to limit". Henan Province has included 11 categories of non-degradable disposable plastic products in the banned plastic list. Liu Dongliang said that for the categories listed in the list, it is necessary to gradually implement the echelon promotion mode from easy to difficult, truly let consumers understand, understand, and support the "ban plastic", and let every ordinary person participate in the "ban plastic" action and consciously resist non-degradable plastic products. For example, first of all, in large commercial supermarkets, exhibitions, organs, pharmacies, bookstores, hotels and other easy to centralized management, the social impact of the solid progress, followed by hotels, scenic spots, hospitals, schools and other occasions, and finally all kinds of wholesale markets, rural markets and so on. Because of the plastic bags used in many supermarkets, pharmacies, restaurants, etc., some of them are printed with the words "degradable plastic bags" and "environmental protection plastic bags", and some non-degradable bags are printed without certification of degradation labels, ordinary consumers can not distinguish between true and false. This requires the regulatory authorities to increase law enforcement efforts, strict management of counterfeit degradable plastic products and heavy penalties. On the one hand, government agencies should take the lead in using disposable biodegradable plastic products, at the same time, in accordance with the requirements, perform their duties according to law, and increase the promotion of replacement and market supervision of disposable biodegradable plastic products. Banning the production and use of non-degradable plastic products and reducing white pollution is a long-term and arduous task that cannot be accomplished overnight. In the future, as long as we persevere, strictly manage and grasp, formulate targeted plans and goals, the whole chain of the industry and the whole field of the market, so that plastic pollution can be effectively controlled from the source to the end, we will be able to completely eliminate white pollution, so that the people can have more happiness and sense of gain through having green mountains and clear water.