The Ministry of Commerce recently studied and drafted the management measures for the use and report of disposable plastic products (Draft for comments) (hereinafter referred to as the draft for comments), which was issued jointly with the national development and Reform Commission to solicit comments from the public. The "seminar on the management measures for the use and report of disposable plastic products (Draft for comments)" led by the Political Research Office of China Green Development Council was recently held in Beijing. Relevant parties such as law, enterprises, industry associations, government departments and experts and representatives in relevant fields discussed and put forward suggestions on the exposure draft, and more than 2600 people participated in the meeting online.
Use of disposable plastic products
And recycling are expected to be transparent
With regard to the specifications for the use of disposable plastic products, the exposure draft proposes that in the field of commodity retail, commodity retail operators are encouraged to set up self-service sales devices for environmentally friendly alternative products, explore the provision of shopping basket and shopping cart rental services, and reduce the use of disposable plastic products. In the field of e-commerce, encourage e-commerce operators to cooperate with commodity production enterprises to design and apply commodity packaging to meet the needs of express logistics distribution; Encourage e-commerce operators to cooperate with delivery enterprises to promote the application of recyclable packaging and reduce the use of disposable plastic products; Encourage e-commerce operators to guide consumers to use environmentally friendly alternative products through incentive measures. Catering operators shall reasonably select environmental protection alternative products or disposable plastic products to provide packaging and takeout services according to the contents; Encourage catering operators to guide consumers to use environmentally friendly alternative products through incentive measures and reduce the use of disposable plastic products. Encourage e-commerce platforms (including takeout platforms) to carry out multi-party cooperation with delivery enterprises, sanitation units and recycling enterprises, and put disposable plastic product recycling facilities in key areas such as office buildings, schools and large communities.
Similar to the filing system of hazardous waste management, the exposure draft requires relevant enterprises to regularly report the use and recycling of disposable plastic products to relevant business management departments for supervision. With regard to the reporting specification of disposable plastic products, the exposure draft requires that the units running commodity retail places, e-commerce platform enterprises and takeout enterprises should report the use and recycling of disposable plastic products to the local county-level competent commerce department every six months through the national unified disposable plastic product use and recycling reporting system. The report of market entities shall be completed within 15 days after the end of the reporting period. The local competent commercial departments at or above the county level shall strengthen the quality audit, publicity and guidance of the reporting information of disposable plastic products within their administrative areas, do a good job in the analysis of the use and recycling reports of disposable plastic products, and report the implementation and analysis of the reporting system to the competent commercial departments at the next higher level within 30 days after the end of the reporting period. Encourage commodity retail establishments, e-commerce platform enterprises and takeout enterprises to cooperate with recycling enterprises with information statistics ability to accurately report recycling data.
"What mankind wants to eliminate is pollution,Not plastic "
Since the full implementation of domestic waste classification in Shanghai on July 1, 2019, cities across the country have put forward more "green" requirements for the use of plastic products in the promotion of domestic waste classification. Degradable plastics, as a substitute for traditional plastics, quickly appeared in the public eye. However, after the market test in the past two years, many cities are faced with the problems that it is difficult to distinguish the authenticity of degradable plastics, difficult to collect them by classification and more difficult to dispose them separately.
In this regard, Zhang Yi, chairman of China strategic emerging industry environmental protection alliance, proposed at the meeting that plastic products should be treated dialectically. What we want to eliminate is pollution, not plastic. "Reduce use, standardize use, and actively recycle and recycle" should be the main tone of industry management. The purpose of management is to strive to achieve "two improvements and one reduction", that is, to improve the plastic recovery rate, improve the recycling rate and reduce the utilization rate of unnecessary disposable plastic products.
For environmental protection alternative products, we can not simply "de plastic", because plastic products can also be "recyclable, recyclable and degradable", and some aspects can even be better than non plastic products. In addition to the continuous innovation of materials and products, it is more critical whether standardized management, strict management and whole process management can be implemented. Degradable plastics have both advantages and disadvantages. Its application should be treated scientifically. Because "degradability" also increases the product cost and reduces the use experience, and basically loses the characteristics of "recyclability"; Moreover, once degradable plastics are not properly collected and treated in time, or enter the ocean or soil with the wind and water flow, they will do greater harm to the ecological environment. At the same time, a large number of plastic particles also have the risk of entering the food chain.
Zhang Yi stressed that plastic products themselves are not our "enemy", and the environmental pollution caused by indiscriminate littering is our "enemy". What mankind wants to eliminate is pollution, not plastic.
It is reported that in Hainan, the first place to ban plastics in China, the island has abundant incineration capacity, but the surrounding sea areas are the final receiving site for plastic waste. Some experts therefore suggested that the promotion of degradable plastics in Hainan should highlight the requirements of marine degradation, which can be different from inland cities, which is the real ecological design. The report on "biodegradability of plastics in open environment" recently released by the European Commission's scientific advice agency (SAM) points out that: "China's decision to replace biodegradable plastics ignores one of the most important issues, that is, 'the potential benefits of biodegradable plastics will be realized only when the composition of the alternative product is suitable for the discharged environment and the product or its fragments may escape to the receiving environment'." Some insiders suggested that China's urban waste plastic management might as well advocate "one city, one policy".
