China's waste plastic recycling volume ranks first in the world

While plastic brings great convenience to human life, it is difficult to degrade naturally, which brings serious challenges to environmental governance. The recently released national think tank research report "The Concept and Practice of Plastic Pollution Control in China" pointed out that after years of efforts, my country has built a relatively complete waste plastic recycling system, and the amount of waste plastic recycling is the world's largest.

At present, plastic pollution has gradually become the second largest environmental issue in the world after climate change. Statistics show that from 1950 to 2017, the world produced a total of about 9.2 billion tons of plastics. It is estimated that by 2050, the cumulative global plastic production will reach 34 billion tons, and the annual plastic waste generation will be about 300 million tons. As a major plastic producer and consumer, my country's annual output of plastic waste reaches 60 million tons.

Zhang Deyuan, an associate researcher at the Institute of Economic System and Management of the National Development and Reform Commission, said that the essence of plastic pollution is environmental leakage caused by improper management of plastic waste. Once it leaks into the natural environment such as soil and water, it will be difficult to degrade, and improper disposal methods will also affect the greenhouse Gas emissions bring persistent harm to the environment, and microplastics entering the food chain may also cause serious harm to human health.

Faced with the problem of plastic pollution, my country has continuously strengthened the recycling and utilization of plastic waste, actively developed a plastic circular economy, implemented full life cycle governance from production, consumption, circulation and disposal, and accelerated the construction of plastic design, production, circulation and consumption to disposal. The closed-loop development model of post-recycling and disposal explores the coordinated development of plastic use and ecological environmental protection. "Improving the level of waste plastic recycling is an effective way to solve plastic pollution." Xu Junxiang, president of China Material Recycling Association, said that most plastic materials are renewable. According to estimates, every 1 ton of waste plastic recycled can save 3 tons. Use of plastic.

my country's material utilization accounts for 45% of the global total during the same period. In 2021, the material recycling volume will be about 19 million tons, and the material recycling rate will reach 31%, which is 1.74 times the global average level of waste plastics, and achieve 100% domestic waste. Material-based recycling, while the local material-based recycling rates in the United States, the European Union, and Japan in the same period were only 5.31%, 17.18%, and 12.50%, respectively.

To solve the problem of plastic pollution, speeding up technological innovation and standard formulation is the top priority. The development of plastic recycling economy needs to lead the society to participate widely, in which the role of enterprises is pivotal.