From 'Bottle' to 'Bottle' : The Recycling of beverage bottles, China awaits action

Plastic is an important basic material that can be found everywhere from a straw to a car. However, while plastic brings many conveniencies, it also brings challenges to environmental governance. In 2021, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Ecology and Environment issued the "14th Five-Year" Plastic Pollution Control Action Plan, which put forward the important task of "accelerating the standardized recycling and disposal of plastic waste", which is also one of the important ways to control plastic pollution during the "14th Five-Year" period.

"Green" regenerated from plastic bottles

PET (PolyEthylene Terephthalate) is one of the most widely used plastics. It has good ductility, high transparency and good safety, and is often used to make beverage bottles or other food packaging materials. In 2019, the weight of beverage PET bottles consumed in China has reached 4.42 million tons [1]. However, PET takes at least hundreds of years to completely decompose under natural conditions, posing a burden to the environment and economy.

From an economic point of view, 95% of the value of plastic packaging will be lost when it is discarded after one-time use [3]. From the environmental point of view, this will also lead to crop production, Marine pollution and many other problems. If the used PET plastic bottles, especially beverage bottles, are recycled for regeneration, it is of great significance from the environmental protection, economy and society.

Data show that the recovery rate of PET beverage bottles in our country reaches 94%[1], and more than 80% of the rPET (recycled PET, recycled PET plastic) made by recycling and recycling enter the recycled fiber industry [2], used as filling, or used to make bags, clothing, umbrellaand other products, and then become waste. Re-making PET beverage bottles into food-grade rPET can not only reduce the use of native PET and the consumption of non-renewable resources such as oil, but also improve the cycle times of rPET through scientific and strict processing processes, and its safety has long been verified in European and American countries.

"A 59% reduction in carbon emissions"

Waste PET beverage bottles in our country mainly enter the recycling system, and the rest flow to landfill, waste incineration power plants, beaches and other places [4]. Landfilling and incineration waste resources, and reducing waste or recycling more waste can reduce environmental burden and costs.

For PET, rebirth is tantamount to nirvana. After deep cleaning and purification, it is regenerated by physical or chemical methods.

Compared with PET made from petroleum, PET made from physical regeneration can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 59% and energy consumption by 76% [5].

In 2020, China made a higher commitment to environmental protection and emission reduction: to achieve the goal of carbon peak before 2030 and carbon neutrality before 2060. At present, China has issued a number of relevant policies and measures to promote the comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development. As one of the effective recycling paths of waste plastics, rPET can play a role in promoting the exploration and improvement of waste management system, and has important practical significance for promoting the achievement of the goal of "double carbon".

rPET used in food packaging, our country to act

At present, due to the environmentally friendly characteristics of rPET, Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand, Japan and South Korea, Thailand, India and other major economies in the world have allowed its use in food packaging, and Africa is also accelerating the expansion of production. But in our country, rPET plastics can not be used in food packaging at present.

There is no shortage of food-grade rPET factories in our country. Our country is the world's largest plastic recycling treatment, recycled PET plastics are widely used in high-end cosmetics, personal care product packaging, automotive and other fields. Some of the food-grade rPET produced in China is used for packaging of daily chemicals, and some is exported to foreign markets.

According to the "Survey Report on Chinese Consumers' rPET Cognition (2022)" released by the Food and Health Information Exchange Center of Koxin, 73.39% of consumers will take the initiative to recycle or reuse waste beverage bottles in their daily life, and 62.84% of consumers have expressed a positive intention to apply PET regeneration to food. Of course, for the safety of rPET used in food packaging materials, more than 90% of consumers expressed concern. It can be seen that consumers in our country have a positive attitude towards rPET for food packaging as a whole, and ensuring safety is a necessary premise.

The real application of rPET in the food field, on the one hand, should be based on safety assessment and pre-post supervision, on the other hand, we expect the whole society to cooperate to promote the application of high-value rPET and promote the development of circular economy.