Problems and Development Trends of Plastic Green Packaging in China

In recent years, China's plastic green packaging industry has been rapidly developed, but also strongly promoted the progress of food, daily chemical and pharmaceutical industries. These industry advances have in turn further stimulated the market demand for plastic packaging. People's lives are inseparable from shopping bags, merchandise bags, garbage bags, and refrigerator storage bags. Industrial packaging, household daily goods packaging, clothing packaging, and pharmaceutical packaging are also widely used in plastic packaging.

(I) Analysis of Problems and Causes

In general, Shanghai has made good progress in the R&D and market development of plastic green packaging materials, but there are still many problems.

1. The main reason is that the distribution structure of R&D and production units is irrational

This is detrimental to the development of the plastic green packaging industry in Shanghai and the overall solution to the environmental pollution problems of plastic waste in Shanghai.

2. There are many R&D projects and products in degradable plastics, and the market sales are not good.

Most of the projects for degradable plastic packaging materials focus on photodegradation and light. The biodegradable, low-starch-filled PE degradable plastic packaging materials project was repeatedly developed and focused on the market development of shopping bags and lunch boxes; while in high-starch filled PE degradable plastics and PHBV, PCL, glycols and diacids Condensed polyester and other fully biodegradable plastic items, R & D is not much, its production units are also very few, the distribution structure is very unreasonable. This resulted in a low level of development of new product markets, and a large number of low-value-added products were not sold well; while high-value cosmetic containers and disposable medical plastic products were out of stock on the market.
3. With regard to recycling, R&D and production units are few, and recycling is very difficult

In terms of recycling, only two R&D and production units are involved, mainly due to the problems of lagging regulations, inadequate standards, and imperfect policies. Therefore, their recycling work is very difficult. Of course, the recycling of EPS plastic cutlery has been achieved. It has achieved initial success, but it is far from the requirements for the construction of an eco-friendly city in Shanghai.

4. The shortage of funds for market development of high-tech products in private enterprises

Of the 13 units in Shanghai R&D and market development of plastic green packaging materials, 5 are newly developed private enterprises. Among them, there is a general shortage of funds for market development of high-tech products and low levels of development of new product markets. There is also a lot of closures or conversions among them.

There are widespread problems in the development of high-tech products, such as shortage of funds for market development in private enterprises. It is also important to solve the relevant laws, standards and policies.

(II) Development Trend of Plastic Green Packaging Industry

1. Research and development of recyclable green packaging materials

Packaging waste regulations vary from place to place, but there is a common principle: encourage the use of raw materials. In the packaging design, the same material should be used as much as possible, the materials that can coexist can be separated, and tend to use a material that is simple in structure and easy to recycle.
Under the premise of satisfying the packaging function, the amount of garbage generated is reduced as much as possible to present a lightweight development trend of the packaging film. The key technology is to use a new type of raw material such as bimodal polymer with super toughness, which can be processed thinly and can be easily processed. HDPE, polyolefins with metallocene catalysts, and excellent barrier materials.

2. Research on plastic stabilization technology

The key to the development of plastic stabilization technology is the development and application of new antioxidants, UV stabilizers, and free radical scavengers. Refillable plastic containers for daily chemicals, food trays or turnover boxes, etc., can use plastic stabilizing techniques to produce high-quality plastic products to increase their value for reuse or recycling. At present, the greenhouse film used in agriculture should also adopt this technology to improve its service life. The successful development of the new polymeric hindered amine light stabilizers and their anti-aging and anti-dropping PE greenhouse membranes will have an immeasurable practical value for the industrialization of agricultural production.

3. Research on plastic degradable technology

Biodegradable plastics are generally divided into biodegradable plastics, photodegradable plastics and biodegradable plastics. Domestic research and development of products have covered light degradation, photobiodegradation, photo-oxygen biodegradation, high-starch content biodegradation, high-calcium carbonate-filled photo-oxygen degradation, and full biodegradability; the application of biodegradable plastic products in packaging It has been used in ordinary packaging films, shrink films, shopping bags, garbage bags, etc., and has played a positive role in improving the quality of the environment. From the standpoint of protecting ecological balance, it is imperative to study fully biodegradable plastics. In particular, high-quality, low-cost biodegradable plastics filled with edible powders or inorganic minerals are important research topics for the development of biodegradable plastics. Such degradable plastics are mainly used to replace disposable non-returnable plastic waste bags, fertilizer bags, cosmetic containers and disposable medical plastic products.

4. Strengthen the research and development of incineration recovery of heat energy or use of steel-making furnaces to reuse plastic waste

Incineration of recovered heat energy is a major means of recycling plastic waste, and it is also the most realistic choice for plastic waste disposal. At present, the domestic incineration equipment technology level is low, and the technology development using coke ovens to use plastic waste has just begun. In the future, we should research and develop the relevant equipment for thermal energy treatment by plastic waste disposal, and design equipment that is more simple to use, have a longer life, and have lower prices, in order to accelerate the research and development of China's incineration of recovered thermal energy and the use of steel-making furnaces to reuse plastic waste.

5, edible film

Edible packaging films are made of natural edible substances (eg, polysaccharides, proteins, etc.) and have a porous network structure formed by the interaction between different molecules. Such as chitosan edible packaging film, corn protein packaging film, modified cellulose edible packaging film and composite edible packaging film, etc., edible film can be applied to the inner packaging of various ready-to-eat foods, in the food industry should Has a huge market.

6, water-soluble plastic packaging film

Water-soluble plastic packaging film as a novel green packaging material is widely used in the packaging of various products in Europe, America, Japan and other countries, such as pesticides, fertilizers, pigments, dyes, detergents, water treatment agents, mineral additives, washing Agents, concrete additives, photographic chemicals, and gardening chemicals.

The water-soluble film has been extensively emphasized by developed countries in the world because of its environmental characteristics such as thorough degradation and safe and convenient use.

7. Focus on the development of recycling economy plastics, development of corresponding countermeasures, laws, regulations and systems and implementation methods
At present, China's facilities for the distribution of solid plastic waste have emerged in Shanghai, but there are still a lot of people free to put it. A considerable number of regions, departments, and enterprises only care about the short-term behavior of immediate interests. If the country does not have corresponding countermeasures, laws, regulations and systems; then, the development of circular economy plastics is just empty talk. Therefore, we must focus on this research. In particular, it is necessary to strengthen the legislative research on the recycling and reuse of plastic waste in China.

8, CT material

After 10 years of hard work, Japan Central Chemical Corporation has successfully developed a plastic CT for food packaging containers that meets the principles of environmental protection. CT is not only resistant to high temperatures, but also has one of the most prominent advantages, that is, its function is similar to the PSP plastic product commonly known as “foam foam plastic”, and its volume is only equivalent to 1/4 of the latter. In this way, many troubles caused by the bulkiness are avoided during recovery, and extremely favorable conditions are created to eliminate the negative impact on the environment.

9, new high barrier plastic packaging materials

New high-barrier plastics have been widely used abroad, and domestic technology has also been introduced. The use of high-strength, high-barrier plastics can not only improve the protection of foods, but also reduce the amount of plastics used when packaging the same amount of food, and can even be reused. Currently used in China high barrier materials are aluminum foil, nylon, polyester, polyvinylidene chloride and so on. With the increase of food protection requirements, better barrier ethylene. Vinyl alcohol copolymers, polyvinyl alcohol, etc. have also begun to be applied. The PEN (polyethylene naphthalate) developed by developed countries and used in small quantities will bring about tremendous changes in food packaging in the new century. The chemical structure of PEN is similar to that of PET (polyethylene terephthalate 0, but the rigidity is greatly improved, and the oxygen barrier and water resistance are several times higher than that of PET, and the ultraviolet absorption is good, the hydrolysis resistance is good, and the gas is sucked. It is low in sex, and the stuffed food has no residual taste, and can be reused.(Wen/Huang Genlong to Zi Yan)