Plastic Waste - "Human's Second Mineral Deposit"

The rapid development of the contradiction between the plastics industry and the environment

Because the plastic in the polymer material has excellent chemical stability, corrosion resistance, electrical insulation, heat insulation, excellent shock absorption and noise reduction and sound insulation, and has good flexibility, can be well with the metal, glass, Wood and other materials bonded, easy processing and molding. Therefore, in the four major industrial materials, the quantity, role, status, and scope of application of plastics have expanded dramatically, leading steadily, replacing metal, wood, paper, etc., and are widely used in various fields of the national economy. At the end of the 1960s, ferrous metals accounted for 60% of the total consumption of structural materials; in the 1990s, synthetic plastics accounted for 78% and ferrous metals accounted for 19%. It can be said that no material has such a wide range of uses as plastics.

However, it is precisely due to certain excellent properties of plastic that it will not be able to rot after use or consumption, and it will affect the ecological environment of the earth. It has aroused great concern in the world. In 1997, the world’s total plastic output exceeded 140 million tons, its volume was equivalent to 1 billion tons of steel; in 1995, China’s plastic products industry sales reached 110 billion yuan; in 2000, China’s annual output of plastic products has exceeded 1200 Tens of thousands of tons, and with a rapid growth of 13% annually, the total amount of waste plastics will also increase dramatically, and the contradiction between environment and development will become increasingly prominent. Therefore, the management of waste plastics has become an urgent matter.

Waste plastic resources are called by modern economists as "the second mineral deposit of mankind" and "the treasure in the city." As we all know, plastic raw materials are chemical products that are extracted from natural petroleum. Oil is the lifeblood of modern industry, and it is a non-renewable natural resource. Asian countries generally face the oil energy crisis. China is a net oil importer, and oil is related to the country. Energy security. According to statistics from related departments, the plastic waste generated in a medium-sized city each year can satisfy the raw material needs of 20 medium and small-sized plastic enterprises. Therefore, recycled plastic is the regeneration of oil. The use of waste plastics for melt granulation can ease the contradiction between the supply and demand of plastic raw materials, and can also greatly save the foreign exchange of the country’s imported crude oil. In addition, due to the fact that most plastics are not degradable, they accumulate over time, causing severe white pollution and destroying the ecological environment of the earth.

The plastics industry is an important pillar of the national economy. Recycling is the only way for the sustainable development of the plastics industry. The establishment of a recycled plastic pellet plant can save resources for the country, promote economic development, and make a great contribution to environmental protection. It is a green environmental protection undertaking that benefits the country and the people, and whose work is in the present day. Therefore, plastic recycling is a basic national policy.

Application range of recycled plastic particles

After the waste plastics are processed into granules, they only change their appearance and shape, do not change their chemical properties, and still have good comprehensive material properties. They can meet the technical requirements of blown film, wire drawing, pipe drawing, injection molding, and extrusion profiles. In the production of plastic products.

In daily life, recycled particles can be used to make a variety of plastic bags, barrels, pots, toys, furniture, stationery and other life tools and various plastic products...... It has a very wide range of applications, mainly in the following areas: Clothing industry In the construction materials, agriculture, machinery industry, chemical industry, electrical appliance industry and telecommunications industry, the specific applications will not be described here.

Waste plastic raw materials source and distribution

As long as there are people, there will be plastic waste. A variety of plastic packaging, lined bags, shopping bags, plastic pots, plastic pots, plastic shoes, plastic buckets, toys, agricultural film, woven bags, beverage bottles, stationery, vehicle bumpers, household appliances shell, computer shell, waste Polychlorinated pipe, industrial waste plastic products, plastic doors and windows, polyester products (polyester film, mineral water bottles, coke bottles, etc.) and waste materials in the plastic molding process.

Since the 1950s, China has begun to establish a unique waste recycling system. At present, there are more than 5,000 kinds of waste material recycling enterprises in the country, with 160,000 recycling outlets, and it covers almost every township, town, and large, medium, and small cities. There are a large number of waste plastics of all types, suitable for batch production. buy. Correspondingly, there is an extremely large army of waste materials purchased in various parts of the country.

The mulch used extensively in the rural areas of northeast, northwest, and north China is a one-time use of agricultural materials, and is huge in quantity and low in price. The vast numbers of rural workers are adequate. If the organization staff collects or purchases on their own, they can promptly solve the problem of soil pollution caused by the plastic film, and eliminate intermediate links. While ensuring the source of raw materials, it also significantly reduces raw material costs and increases profits. .

In recent years, Japan, South Korea, and Russia, which are adjacent to our country, also have a large number of various types of waste plastics flowing into China via sea and land, and have shown a clear upward trend. China's Zhejiang, Shanghai, Guangdong, Fujian and other coastal provinces are more active. At the same time, the sustained and stable development of China’s economy, the determination of the Chinese government to govern white pollution, and the success of Beijing’s bid for the Olympics have made foreign companies that have tasted the sweetness in this area and have begun to enter China’s beach.

In summary, low-cost, readily available waste plastics are everywhere.

Market Analysis of Recycled Plastic Particles

Recycled plastic pellets have a very wide market and plastics companies have a large demand. To fully understand the market conditions of recycled plastic particles, we first calculate a cost account together:

A medium-sized agricultural film factory requires more than 1,000 tons of high-pressure polyethylene (LDPE) per year. At present, the average price of LDPE in the plastics market across the country is 7,000 yuan / ton, the average price of LDPE recycled particles is 3,800 yuan / ton, a difference of 3,200 yuan per ton. In other words, if a medium-sized agricultural film plant purchases recycled plastic pellets in half, the raw material cost alone can save 1.6 million yuan in one year. This is undoubtedly a huge wealth!

According to official statistics, in 1999, China produced 434.6 tons of polyethylene, which could only meet the domestic market demand of 46.4%. At present, China's ethylene equivalent demand will increase by 8.5%, and by 2005, ethylene equivalent demand will be 15 million tons. For this reason, the country will spend a lot of foreign exchange importing ethylene raw materials or crude oil each year to meet the huge gap in domestic ethylene demand. Therefore, the recycling of waste plastics can save the country a lot of foreign exchange.

A medium-sized plastic woven bag factory consumes more than 2,000 tons of recycled polypropylene particles every year. Even the minimum consumption of individual small factories requires millions of tons per year. A medium-sized shoe factory needs 2000 tons of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) recycled particles each year... ... The huge demand for recycled pellets by plastics companies has provided ample market space for companies and individuals who have intentionally established waste plastics recycling pellet factories.

The status of China's recycled plastics industry

China's recycled plastics industry started earlier and made great contributions to resource conservation and environmental protection. The results are major and the prospects are huge. However, the status quo is not optimistic. It is summarized briefly and mainly includes the following four aspects:

First, China's waste plastic resources are rich and contain huge wealth. However, the circulation is not smooth and there is a serious shortage of development and utilization. The State Economic and Trade Commission announced that during the “Ninth Five-Year Plan” period, China’s annual recycling of about 14 million tons of waste plastics has not been recycled, the recycling rate is only 25%, and direct resource wasted as high as 28 billion yuan per year.

2. The industry is basically dominated by small workshops where employees are independent of one another, lack of exchanges and cooperation, backward equipment, lack of technology, poor management, and new ideas, new technologies, new processes, and new equipment are scarcely used to transform into productive forces. As a result, the product quality is low, and the profits of the factory are seriously lost.

Third, a small number of regional industries started earlier and employed more workers, naturally forming a certain scale. The local government took advantage of the situation and cultivated a recycled plastics industrial park with an annual output value of several hundred million yuan. However, it still faces backward concepts, lagging technology and lagging management. Development bottlenecks, the direction of development is unknown, and there is a serious shortage of stamina.

Fourth, the lack of pilot flagship of recycled plastics industry, rare professional brands. During the negotiations on accession to the WTO, China promised to open up the market for recycled plastics. The international capital will be ready for China's recycled plastics market. If we do not accelerate the pace to form an overall advantage, it will be tantamount to relegating the “gold mine” of recycled plastics.

China's actual recycling rate of plastics

I. China's current high recycling rate of plastics

　　 Waste plastics are of value. As long as there are waste plastics, then surely someone will purchase them at a higher price. As long as domestic renewable plastics are recycled, millions of tons of waste plastics are processed, and many are recycled plastics. Processing and plastics processors that use recycled plastics as raw materials worry about the timely availability of raw materials!

So, how to calculate the recycling rate? Based on the supply of domestic plastic products, as long as the product does not have use value, it can be regenerated, and most of it is regenerated. If the supply of large petrochemical plastic raw materials is used as the base, it must be calculated that the raw material is There is no point in talking about the number of times of re-use. China's annual supply of recycled plastic raw materials is too large.

This situation is mainly due to: China's huge market demand and very low-cost labor!

Second, small scale, widely distributed, blooming everywhere

Various types of recycled plastics processing companies are blooming, and other industries rarely have such intensive levels, mainly because of low investment. Technical reasons are not high.

Third, the overall profit margin of the industry is not high

　　 With too many employees, repeated investment, and high raw material costs, the overall profit margin of the industry is not high. (The economic benefits of imported raw material processing and various management companies are still good)

Fourth, the industry is saturated, with excess processing capacity, many small-scale processing companies are shut down every year.

　　 Recycling plastic processing plants are simple, and it is difficult for technology and management to keep up with the need to make profits. Therefore, many small-scale processing companies have closed down their production. In some regions, processing plants shut down from production in 2002-2003 exceeded normal work. Of course, this is normal, otherwise the industry can't develop yet!

V. There are major problems in the recycled plastics industry:

The quality of reclaimed machinery needs to be improved, the technical content of products is low, the quality is unstable, there is a certain degree of secondary pollution, and many production processes and equipment have potential safety hazards.

In general, the recycled plastics industry has made great progress in recent years! There have been some companies with good scale and efficiency. The recycled plastics industry has become a big industry.

Close contact with recycled plastics industry

As a zero-distance contact person in the recycled plastics industry, I have my own personal experience in the processing and production of recycled plastics.

Our family has been engaged in the recovery and processing of recycled high-pressure polyethylene (LDPE) since the early 1990s. At the beginning, there were only five, and the scale was relatively small. The monthly production was only a few tons. As a raw material supplier, we mainly used film blowing. In terms of drawing, drawing, drawing, injection molding, extrusion and extrusion. In those years, although the output was relatively small, because there were not many people engaged in this industry, the competition was not fierce, so the profits were relatively large. In the following ten years, it has developed rapidly. More and more people are engaged in this industry, from the original five to more than one hundred; the scale is also getting bigger, from a few people's workshop processing, Up to now, there are dozens of people and even hundreds of people on a large scale; the monthly production of each one is also increasing, from the original tons to the current dozens of tons. With the fierce competition, the profit per unit of production has gradually decreased, and the profit per ton has decreased from more than one thousand yuan to three or four hundred yuan or even less. However, it is undeniable that this industry has not only recycled used plastics, but also has driven economic development in the nearby regions, specifically in the following areas:

By recycling waste plastics, the country saves energy and reduces the environment