1、 Development status of recycled plastics industry

In recent years, China's plastic industry has maintained a trend of rapid development, with production and sales ranking first in the world. The output of plastic products accounts for about 20% of the world's total output. According to the statistical data of the National Bureau of statistics, in 2020, the output of primary form plastics in industries above Designated Size in China exceeded 100million tons, with a year-on-year increase of 8.2%. With the sharp increase in the use of plastic products in daily life, the number of waste plastic wastes also increased rapidly. Therefore, the recycling of waste plastics has increasingly become an important aspect of resource recycling and environmental protection in China. The recycled plastics are the plastic raw materials obtained from the processing of waste plastics through physical or chemical methods such as pretreatment, melting granulation, modification, etc. it is the reuse of plastics. As a policy guiding industry, the healthy and orderly development of recycled plastics industry can not be separated from policy guidance and support, especially in today's severe environmental protection situation, the policy guidance of China's recycled plastics industry is more obvious. On january16,2020, the national development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of ecology and environment issued the opinions on Further Strengthening the control of plastic pollution, requiring that by 2025, the management system for the production, circulation, consumption, recycling and disposal of plastic products should be improved, and the use of non degradable plastics should be gradually banned and restricted, which means that the domestic recycled plastic industry received the attention of relevant national policies during the 14th Five Year Plan period.

At present, the current situation of renewable resources utilization in China is not satisfactory, mainly including imperfect recycling system, low technical content, lack of technical standards and so on. In the field of plastic recycling, the recycling proportion is low. According to relevant data, the overall amount of waste plastic recycling in China maintained a moderate growth trend from 2011 to 2020. In 2020, the amount of waste plastic recycling accounted for about 30% of the domestic amount of waste plastic. The amount of waste plastic recycling was about 22.23 million tons, while landfill treatment accounted for 31% and incineration power generation accounted for 32%. The recycling standards and certification system of renewable resources represented by waste plastics are lagging behind. Most varieties of renewable resources lack product technical standards, quality classification standards and testing standards. Especially in the field of waste plastics, there is a lack of industry standards in the recycling and deep processing links, which restricts the standardized and healthy development of the industry.

2、 Plastic recycling approach

At present, the total number of waste plastics processing and recycling enterprises registered in China has exceeded 3000, and the total number of waste plastics recycling and processing enterprises has exceeded 10000. Most enterprises are characterized by small scale and backward recycling and processing technology, and include countless illegal recycling, processing workshops or small factories. However, there are many small-scale processing plants with backward recycling and processing equipment and low process level. Most of the enterprise labor force is cheap labor. Generally, a relatively simple way is used to treat waste plastics. During the processing, a large number of toxic gases and waste residues and wastewater harmful to the ecological environment will be produced. According to the different ways of recycling waste plastic resources, the treatment technologies can be divided into simple regeneration technology, modified regeneration technology, gasification regeneration technology, pyrolysis regeneration technology, depolymerization monomer regeneration technology, etc. at present, most processing enterprises still use simple regeneration technology.

Relevant reports: comprehensive research on China's recycled plastics market and prediction of industry investment potential in 2021-2026 issued by China Economic Research Institute;

3、 Banning the import of waste plastics to promote the development of the industry

Before 2018, although China's import of waste plastics decreased year by year, the import volume remained above 5million tons. After the introduction of the "ban on foreign garbage import" policy in 2017, China's import of waste plastics in 2018 was only 50000 tons, a year-on-year decrease of 99.1%. In 2019, the total import volume was almost negligible, a year-on-year decrease of 100%. After banning the import of waste plastics, obtaining a stable supply of renewable plastics has become a common problem faced by enterprises. Some large and medium-sized enterprises have begun to set up domestic recycling networks. It is expected that the industry concentration and technical level will be improved in the future. In addition, the enhanced "plastic restriction order" issued in 2020 proposes to increase the use of recycled plastics that meet the quality control standards and use control requirements, which is expected to promote the release of domestic demand for recycled plastics.