(Economic Observation) China has cracked down on "plastic pollution" and launched a full chain of governance actions
China News Service, Beijing, September 15 (Zhou Ruimei Yunqiu) Faced with plastic pollution, an environmental problem of common concern around the world, China has chosen to attack it with a "full chain" to tackle plastic pollution.
China's National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Ecology and Environment jointly issued the "14th Five-Year" Plastic Pollution Control Action Plan (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan") on the 15th, aiming to promote the "14th Five-Year" white pollution control to achieve greater results.
In the opinion of experts, plastic itself is not a pollutant, and its hazard is that it persists in the environment in a non-degradable way.
Zhang Deyuan, deputy researcher and deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission’s Macroeconomic Research Institute, pointed out that the essence of plastic pollution is that non-degradable plastic garbage leaks into the natural environment such as soil and water, causing visual pollution, soil destruction, microplastics and other environmental hazards. .
He pointed out that the core of plastic pollution control is to build strong dams for plastic leakage to the environment.
To reduce the leakage of plastics to the environment, we must first make a fuss from the source.
The "Plan" proposes reduction at the source and promotes "slimming" in the production and consumption of plastics.
In the product design and production link, the "Plan" proposes to actively promote the green design of plastic products to reduce excessive packaging of goods; in the plastic circulation and consumption link, the "Plan" proposes to promote the promotion of disposable plastic products in the traditional business services such as retail, catering, and accommodation. The reduction in the use of e-commerce products greatly reduces the secondary packaging of e-commerce products in the delivery link.
As important as "reduction" is "replacement", the "plan" disclosed this time has been deployed in terms of improving standards, improving testing capabilities, increasing scientific research, and rationally deploying production capacity.
Weng Yunxuan, secretary-general of the Degradable Plastics Professional Committee of the China Plastics Processing Industry Association and dean of the School of Materials and Mechanical Engineering of Beijing Technology and Business University, said that the promotion and application of alternative products cannot simply be equated with the use of biodegradable plastic products, and promote consumers to use less disposable plastic products. Products are what the policy should be.
In addition to source control, strengthening "terminal" processing, and promoting the standardized recycling and disposal of plastic waste are also the key deployment contents of the "Plan".
Due to various reasons, there are still a large amount of plastic waste accumulating in China's natural environment such as rivers, lakes, seas, and fields.
These open-air plastic garbage is difficult to clean up, and it is easy to rebound.
In order to solve this problem, the "plan" deployed the task of vigorously carrying out the cleaning and remediation of plastic waste in key areas, and clarified three key tasks of cleaning and remediating plastic waste in rivers, lakes and seas, tourist attractions and rural areas.
Wang Xuejun, a professor at the School of Urban and Environmental Sciences of Peking University, believes that the above three clean-up and rectification work has strengthened departmental collaboration, focused on adapting measures to local conditions, and established a long-term mechanism.
However, it is worth noting that plastic waste is not just "no good" garbage, but has considerable economic properties.
Zhang Deyuan pointed out that if waste plastics can be recycled and reused well, they will become new resources, thereby reducing the consumption of primary resources.
Therefore, another important part of the entire chain of plastic pollution control is to strengthen the recycling of waste plastics and turn "plastic waste" into "renewable resources."
Therefore, the "Plan" proposes to combine the classification of domestic waste, promote the integration of urban renewable resource recycling outlets and domestic waste classification outlets, and improve the standardization of plastic waste recycling.
Improve the classified collection, transfer and disposal system of rural domestic garbage.
The "plan" also expressed support for the construction of plastic waste recycling projects.
Wang Yonggang, secretary general of the Recycling Plastics Branch of the China Material Recycling Association, pointed out that to strengthen the standardized recycling and removal of plastic waste, establish and improve the rural plastic waste collection and disposal system, increase the recycling of plastic waste, and improve the level of harmless disposal of plastic waste. These are the four main tasks for the development of China's recycled plastics industry during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period.
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