Fu Xiangsheng, vice president of the Petrochemical Federation: Study and implement the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China Plastic circulation boosts Chinese-style modernization

The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China pointed out that Chinese-style modernization is a modernization
in which man and nature live in harmony.
Promoting green and low-carbon economic and social development is a key link
to achieve high-quality development.
Implement a comprehensive conservation strategy, promote the conservation and intensive utilization of various resources, and accelerate the construction of a waste recycling system
.
On November 16, the 4th Plastics Circular Economy Seminar was held by video, and Fu Xiangsheng, Vice President of China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation, delivered a speech
.
As soon as the live broadcast came offline, there were and the participants hoped to see the speech as soon as possible, and the following was specially edited to inspire and think about peers:

First, plastic circular economy is an important measure and way to
reduce plastic environmental pollution.
Since its birth 100 years ago, a total of about 8.
3 billion tons of plastic has been produced, and more than 6 billion tons of waste plastics have been landfilled or discarded, which has a serious impact on the ecological environment, and the control of plastic pollution has become a global consensus and is becoming a common action
.
The United Nations Environment Programme has been advocating to jointly control plastic pollution for many years, and international organizations such as the World Plastics Council and the newly established Alliance to End Plastic Waste (AEPW) have taken active action to reduce the amount of plastic waste and minimize the pollution
of waste plastics to the ecological environment and oceans.
However, we must also objectively evaluate the important contributions made by plastics to the progress of human society and civilization over the past hundred years, especially in the important role
of replacing steel and wood, energy conservation and emission reduction.
Plastic pollution, plastic marine pollution is caused by improper use, coupled with random discarding, as long as the appropriate and scientific use of plastics, and increase the recycling of waste plastics, in the near future with continuous innovation, will be able to properly solve the problem of
waste plastic pollution.

Second, the plastic circular economy is divided into physical cycle and chemical cycle
.
Physical recycling is a realistic path for cascade reuse of waste plastic resources, and many, many scientists and scientific and technological innovators are increasing innovation to explore and innovate methods and programs
for physical recycling of waste plastics.
Academician Qu Jinping used innovative special equipment and processing technology to realize that waste plastics do not need to be sorted, processed directly after cleaning, and realized resource reuse
.

Chemical cycle resource reuse is the current domestic and foreign highly valued innovation content, because chemical cycle can achieve high-value reuse of waste plastics, many multinational companies and domestic enterprises have also achieved important stage results, some are waste plastics by depolymerization or decomposition method, reduced to monomer, polymerization again to achieve chemical cycle
.
As far as I know, DuPont and in recent years Huntsman have mastered the "methanol decomposition technology" to decompose waste polyester (PET) beverage bottles into methyl terephthalate and ethylene glycol monomer, and then resynthesize new PET resins to achieve a closed-loop chemical cycle
.
There are also waste plastics gasification into syngas or pyrolysis into oil, resynthesis of chemicals and their polymers, such as the thermal cracking process being developed by BASF, the thermal cracking of waste plastics into syngas or oil, and the use of this raw material to reproduce various chemicals or polymers at the integrated site in Ludwigshafen, Germany, with the quality reaching food grade
.
Eastman uses polyester recycling technology to chemically recycle a range of polyester plastic waste, which reduces greenhouse gas emissions
by 20-30% compared to conventional processes.
Kobelco Environment Japan's environment uses a fluidized bed gasifier to gasify low-purity, non-recyclable waste plastics to obtain synthesis gas to produce methanol, and the project is scheduled to start operation in September 2023, which can reduce carbon dioxide emissions
by 100,000 tons for every 60,000 tons of waste plastics processed.
The Zhongshi Fossil Science Institute and aerospace science and industry have also achieved phased results
in plastic recycling.

The chemical recycling and reuse of waste plastics is not a problem from a technical point of view, because most chemical reactions are reversible: they can be decomposed when they can be synthesized, and they can be depolymerized
if they can be polymerized.
The polymer obtained by the chemist's own polymerization reaction must be able to decompose it through the depolymerization (or cleavage) reaction, which is the basic principle of chemical reaction, and there is no technical obstacle.

At present, the biggest obstacle is economic, is the cost and price issues, is the operating costs of enterprises and the price of recycled plastics is higher or lower than the price of new plastics, that is, economic competitiveness issues
.
I believe that today's seemingly increasingly serious problem of waste plastic pollution will eventually be solved, but technical solutions alone are not enough, but also policy promotion and support, economic competitiveness, people's consensus and global action
.

Third, the plastic circular economy is an important path and choice
to achieve carbon peak and carbon neutrality.
In order to cope with climate change, "carbon peaking and carbon neutrality" has become the consensus of most countries and people, and the "Action Plan for Peaking Carbon Emissions before 2030" issued by the State Council emphasizes clear goals and requirements
such as "by 2025, the recycling of nine major renewable resources such as scrap steel, waste paper, waste plastics, and waste rubber will reach 450 million tons, and by 2030, it will reach 510 million tons" and "strengthen the governance of the whole chain of plastic pollution" 。 Increasing the recycling of waste plastics reduces the consumption of fossil resources, not only reduces human dependence on fossil resources such as oil, natural gas, coal, etc.
, but also reduces the emission
of greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.
This is the core meaning of the report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China to accelerate the green transformation of development mode, accelerate the construction of waste recycling system, and promote ecological priority, conservation and intensification, green and low-carbon development
.

The whole petrochemical industry and the majority of petrochemical enterprises are implementing the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Party and the strategic deployment of the Party Central Committee's "carbon peak and carbon neutrality", and the Petrochemical Federation is working with international organizations and petrochemical industry organizations in Europe, the United States and Japan to continuously innovate, promote the action of preventing waste plastic pollution, increase the recycling of waste plastic resources, and make more positive and important contributions to the bright future of harmonious coexistence between man and the environment and the early realization of Chinese-style modernization!