2022 China International Petrochemical Congress sub-forum plastic circular economy seminar initiative: jointly promote the chemical recycling of waste plastics

The 2022 Plastics Circular Economy Symposium, a sub-forum of the 2022 China International Petroleum and Chemical Conference, was held
online last week.
The conference showed the current situation
of the global development of plastic circular economy from the perspective of international dynamics, domestic progress and industrial collaboration.
A number of experts said that it is necessary to increase the chemical recycling and reuse of waste plastics, and jointly promote the healthy development of
the plastic chemical recycling industry through collaborative innovation.

Fu Xiangsheng, vice president of the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation, pointed out in his speech that plastics have made important contributions to the progress of human civilization, but more than 6 billion tons of landfilled or discarded plastics have a serious impact
on the ecological environment.
Plastic circular economy is an important path and choice to achieve carbon peak and carbon neutrality, and an important measure and way
to reduce plastic environmental pollution.
It is necessary to use plastics appropriately and scientifically, and increase the recycling of waste plastics
.

The Action Plan for Peaking Carbon Emissions before 2030 issued by the State Council puts forward clear goals and requirements
such as "by 2025, the recycling of nine major renewable resources, including scrap steel, waste paper, waste plastics, and waste rubber, will reach 450 million tons, and by 2030, 510 million tons" and "strengthen the management of the whole chain of plastic pollution".

In this regard, Fu Xiangsheng said that the plastic circular economy is divided into physical cycles and chemical cycles
.
At present, the recycling of chemical recycling has received great attention at home and abroad, and can realize the high-value reuse
of waste plastics.
Although the chemical recycling and reuse of waste plastics is not a technical point of view, because most of the chemical reactions are reversible, the biggest obstacle to the promotion of this process comes from the economy, that is, there is a problem
of cost and price inversion.
Therefore, the promotion of waste plastic chemical recycling and resource reuse is not enough only technical solutions, but also needs policy promotion and support, economic and people's consensus improvement, and global action
.

Hou Cong, ExxonMobil Asia Pacific Product Sustainability Regulation Manager and Vice Chairman of the Sustainability Working Group of the Foreign Investment Committee of the Petrochemical Federation, called on all stakeholders to innovate collaboratively to promote the healthy development of
the plastic chemical recycling industry.

Li Mingfeng, president of Sinopec Petrochemical Research Institute, said that the recycling efficiency of the physical cycle of plastics is high, but the applicability of raw materials is not wide, and the product quality has been reduced
.
Chemical recycling can compensate for these shortcomings by chemically recycling low-value waste plastics that cannot be effectively used by physical regeneration.

The conference invited representatives from European industry organizations PlasticEurope, international consulting firm ICIS, the Alliance to End Plastic Waste (AEPW), Sinopec, BASF, SABIC, ExxonMobil, Honeywell, Covestro, Como and other companies to share the report
.