Multi-party joint efforts to make "soft plastic" regain "new life" - the "soft plastic new life" project will be officially launched

What kind of waste should be considered as the outer packaging of used laundry detergent and the packaging of snacks after eating? Would you like to join them if you collected them and re-used them at high value?

Recently, it was learned that led by the Green Recycled Plastics Supply Chain Joint Working Group (GRPG) and the Recycled Plastics Branch of the China Materials Recycling Association, a number of jointly initiated "soft plastic renewal" projects were officially launched on December 22, which will realize the closed-loop high-value utilization of plastic flexible packaging and explore a new model
for the development of plastic circular economy.

Why "soft plastic"? ——The volume is huge, and recycling urgently needs to break through

Polyethylene, polypropylene, polyvinyl chloride, polystyrene.
.
.
There are actually hundreds of plastics that seem similar in life, and each has different recycling methods, complex processes, plastic flexible packaging because of its diverse materials, complex, light weight and other characteristics, recycling has become a global problem
.

It is estimated that of the 4,500 tons of raw materials used in the production of plastic packaging in China in 2020, more than 20 million tons
of plastic raw materials are used to produce plastic flexible packaging.
Because of this, in recent years, China's plastic recycling rate has been hovering around 30%, although it has ranked in the forefront of the world, but also fell into the growth "bottleneck", plastic flexible packaging recycling urgently needs to break through
.

"In principle, every plastic can be recycled, but compared to traditional packaging, single-material plastics not only ensure the necessary functions of packaging, but also greatly reduce the complexity of the process in the utilization stage, thereby improving the utilization rate
.
A single material is one of the important indicators of
easy recycling and easy recycling.
Wang Yonggang, secretary-general of the Recycled Plastics Branch of the China Materials Recycling Association and deputy head of the Green Recycled Plastics Supply Chain Joint Working Group, said
.

According to a recent special study by third-party testing firm Smithers, "The Future of the Single-Material Plastic Packaging Film Market 2025," its market size was 20.
44 million tons ($55.
9 billion) in 2019 and could increase to 26.
03 million tons ($70.
9 billion)
in 2025.
Asia-Pacific, North America and Western Europe are the top three consumer markets
for single-material plastic packaging films in the world.
In 2020, the above three regional markets accounted for 48.
6%, 17.
2% and 15.
5%
of the global single-material plastic packaging film market, respectively.

In fact, as early as 2020, the "Commodity Packaging Government Procurement Demand Standards (Trial)" issued by the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the State Post Bureau and other departments also proposed that the number of commodity packaging layers should not exceed 3 layers, and the void rate should not be more than 40%; Product packaging uses a single material packaging material as much as possible
.

Under the influence of policy guidance and the concept of sustainable development, the industry's emphasis on single-material plastics continues to increase
.
The soft plastic that can be seen everywhere in our daily life has become a test field for single-material plastic packaging for many enterprises, and constantly joins the army
of "single material".

"Up to now, many brands under Mars, such as Dove, Snickers, Crispy Rice, Boro, Weijia, Meishi, etc.
, have launched single-material flexible plastic packaging in the Chinese market to facilitate back-end recycling
.
" Bao Chen, director of public affairs at Mars China, said
.

Not only food, but also the daily chemical product packaging that we need around us is slowly changing to single-material plastic packaging
.

"In the past few years, P&G has launched many products that use single-material plastic packaging, such as Tide laundry beads
.
" P&G's sustainability research and development director Zhou Wandi said
.

It is particularly worth mentioning that as early as February 1, 2021, the Green Plastic Recycling Supply Chain Joint Working Group (GRPG) officially implemented the General Rules for the Evaluation of Plastic Products Easy to Recycle and Recyclable Design (hereinafter referred to as the Double Easy Design Standard
).
The concept is to fully consider the easy recycling and easy recyclability when designing front-end plastic products, and improve the recycling rate and high-value utilization
of waste plastics in China from the source.

Why have you been "sleeping"? - The supply chain is not sound enough

Although the single-material flexible plastic packaging that shoulders the burden of recycling is generally optimistic in the industry, the recycling situation is quite embarrassing: the vast majority of packaging bags "go" to landfills or incinerators, and do not play their due value
.

"Can plastic upholstery be recycled? I really don't know this, I haven't paid attention to the material of these packaging, I only know that plastic bottles should be collected
separately.
"At a garbage station in Beijing's Fengtai neighborhood, I saw citizens discarding
a bag of garbage mixed with plastic packaging.

"At present, the recycling value of flexible plastic packaging has not been effectively tapped, consumers are not strongly aware of flexible packaging recycling, and it is difficult to distinguish whether it is a single-material flexible packaging
that is easy to recycle and recycle.
" Wang Yonggang said
frankly.

A number of industry insiders also expressed the same view
.
Fan Zhimin, public director of PepsiCo Greater China, said: "At present, consumers do not have a high awareness of the recyclability and reusability of plastic flexible packaging, and there is a bottleneck
in the high-value utilization of plastic flexible packaging.
”

In addition to the lack of public awareness, Bao Chen also mentioned infrastructure construction
.
"Some cities have also established corresponding sorting centers and recycling facilities, but the lack of collection, sorting and recycling facilities for recyclables, including soft plastics, also brings certain challenges
to the later high-value utilization.
"

In fact, many experts and scholars have called for the establishment of special sorting agencies for plastic waste, so that these resources can be turned into treasure
as soon as possible.

"Flexible plastic packaging into a single material is only the first step, it is difficult to form a large-scale social effect by the strength of the enterprise itself, and it is necessary for the government, industry and enterprises to work together to introduce relevant standards to jointly promote the high-value utilization
of recycled plastics.
" Zhou Wandi said
.

Zhang Deyuan, associate researcher at the Institute of Economic System and Management of the Macroeconomic Research Institute of the National Development and Reform Commission, previously said, "Plastic pollution prevention and control is an extremely complex social issue, and it is necessary to widely mobilize the efforts of the government, enterprises and the public to build a full-chain management system
covering the design, production, circulation, consumption and recycling of plastics.
" ”

"When plastic packaging waste is recycled, it is also necessary to have good technical support and business case carriers to truly realize the high-value utilization
of recycled waste.
" At present, there are challenges in every link, but it is also a huge opportunity
.
said Shokoda, Dow's director of marketing, Packaging, Hygiene and Health Asia Pacific
.

How to "reborn"? ——Multi-party cooperation to open up the industrial chain

It is in this context that the Green Recycled Plastics Supply Chain Joint Working Group (GRPG) and the Recycled Plastics Branch of the China Materials Recycling Association, and jointly initiated by Procter & Gamble China, Mars China, Dow and PepsiCo, were officially established
.

"It is hoped that through the publicity and guidance of the project, consumers will pay attention to the recycling and reuse of plastic flexible packaging for consumer goods, promote the correct recycling classification, release and reuse of single-material plastic flexible packaging in daily life, and explore the establishment of socialized popularization and recycling specifications, so as to achieve the best use of materials and help the green circular economy
.
" Wang Yonggang said
.

According to reports, the "soft plastic renewal" project is to establish a plastic flexible packaging design-production-consumption-recycling-recycling-high-value application system
by integrating the forces of all links of the industrial chain and taking the design standards for easy recycling and easy recycling of plastic products as the guide.
Break down barriers, realize the recycling of plastic flexible packaging and gradually move towards closed-loop high-value utilization
.

According to the work plan and goals set by the project team, the project is divided into four stages, through carrying out special pilots, demonstrations, replication and promotion, etc.
, it is expected that by 2025, the scope will be extended to first-, second- and third-tier cities across the country, and the "soft plastic renewal" project will achieve an annual recycling of 50,000 tons
of plastic flexible packaging.

Enterprises in the industry have also shown great enthusiasm and support for the project and have high expectations
for the project.

"We believe that the project is very timely, can link upstream and downstream enterprises, carry out innovation, carry out the design of plastic flexible packaging that is easy to recycle and recycle from the source, improve consumer awareness, tap the recycling value of plastic flexible packaging, break through the bottleneck of high-value utilization, and make due contributions
to the country's 'dual carbon' goal.
" Fan Zhimin said
.

Bao Chen said that through cooperation with all parties, Mars hopes to explore and build feasible and replicable local demonstration projects for soft plastic recycling, promote the improvement of relevant policies, regulations and infrastructure construction while improving the recycling rate of soft plastics, and initially establish China's soft plastic recycling system
.

"Prior to this, P&G has done a series of work in the prevention and control of plastic pollution, and we hope to bring the recycling of plastic flexible packaging to a new level
through the implementation of this project.
" Zhou Wandi said
.

This is not the first time that industry associations and plastic companies have joined forces, since the establishment of the Green Recycled Plastics Supply Chain Joint Working Group (GRPG), it has successively issued the "Hui" word logo for easy recycling, easy to recycle design and the "re" character logo of the green recycled plastic specification system aimed at allowing more plastic waste to be fully standardized and recycled, constantly opening a new chapter in the green recycled plastic supply chain and leading the establishment and development
of a green and low-carbon circular system in the plastics industry.

"Dow will continue to work with value chain partners, associations, and governments to implement business models from technology to physical objects to final perfection, so as to truly improve the recycling and high-value reuse
of plastics.
" There is still a long way to go, but we are confident
.
Shokoda said
.

"It is hoped that through the implementation of this project, the resource rate of plastic flexible packaging waste can be improved, contribute to the construction of a 'waste-free city', and explore a new model
for the development of plastic circular economy in China and even the world.
" Wang Yonggang said
.