The Worldwide Restrictions on Plastics Reflect Improving Environmental Awareness
A large number of Asian countries have banned waste imports; in Europe, waste incineration is incompatible with climate policies because it emits large amounts of greenhouse gases. For some waste products that cannot be incinerated, it is necessary to strengthen the classification and collection in the short term, improving the recycling technology, since the ultimate goal is to eliminate the production, sale and use of these plastics. Although chemical recycling of plastics is now popular in both Asia and Europe, the recycling, which mostly involves converting plastics into energy, has not been recognized as a part of the cycle according to the standard in the European Union. A ‘from-plastic-to-plastic’ conversion model would be more desirable, but this has not been proven to apply on a large scale. If sustainable plastics policies are to be implemented, local governments need to promote separate collection of biological waste and work on industrial composting. In order to develop compostable plastic bags, people should not only prevent plastic bags from being discarded in the natural environment, but also collect them on industrial composting to form a recycling industrial chain of plastic treatment. Compostable plastic is considered a good alternative to single-use plastic, but its limitation is disposable rather than reusable materials. Therefore, authorities should continue to advocate the reuse model as the main plastic policy.
Regulations Related to Restrictions on Plastics in Other Countries and Regions
Milan has fully implemented organic waste separation and recycling, because the application of compostable plastic bags has increased the availability and cleanliness of plastic bags. Compostable plastics played an important role in world EXPO Milano 2015, with all plastic products, including disposable forks, spoons, plates and stall food wrappers, being compostable. Thus, the exhibition presented an excellent example of plastic management and provides a reference for other cities to implement plastic restrictions.
The German government has taken action to call for an end to the use of single-use coffee cups after a study revealed that 5,300 of disposable cups are used every minute in Germany. The study, commissioned by Germany’s Federal Environment Agency, found that 2.8 billion single-use cups were used for hot drinks and 3 billion for cold drinks in 2016. According to the non-profit German Association for Environmental and Consumer Protection (DUH), only a small percentage of these disposable cups are recyclable.
Producing, selling or using plastic bags in Kenya is punishable by imprisonment or heavy fines, and citizens holding plastic bags risk being arrested by police. The Kenyan government states an estimated 300 million plastic bags are used in Kenya each year, many of which take centuries to degrade after being thrown away. Kenya’s environment minister believes the injunction will encourage businesses to diversify into more environmentally-friendly reusable bags, potentially creating thousands of employment positions.
Plastic straws, stirrers and swab will be banned in the UK after April 2020, the government has announced. This top-down policy has prompted many restaurants and pubs in the UK to provide paper straws. Meanwhile, the UK government is consulting widely on a Deposit Return Scheme for drinks bottles, designed to encourage consumers to recycle plastic, glass and cans in a timely manner. If the Scheme is implemented, the price of the bottle will be included in the price of the drink purchased by consumers, who will be able to refund the cost of the bottle through supermarket recycling machines. Frozen food supermarket Iceland, as the pioneer of plastic beverage bottle deposit recovery plan in the UK, has implemented this plan in five pilot projects in the UK, and has recovered 310,000 plastic bottles in several months.
It is worth noting that plastic recycling rates in Britain are low, and local authorities in each regions have different rules for recycling, creating confusion. Unfortunately, the UK lacks the infrastructure to deal with recycled plastic at home, shifting the burden of recycling to less developed areas such as South-east Asia. A vast majority of countries that receive plastic burn or bury waste directly, which means that classified plastic is not always recycled, so the best solution to plastic pollution is to reduce the consumption of plastic.
Potential Problems with Biodegradable Plastics
From the perspective of price, paper straws and PLA (Polylactic Acid Material) straws, as the main alternative straws, have disadvantages of higher price and short supply. Plastic straws are still abundant in supply and low in price, so they are still economically rational choices. If the price of biodegradable plastic falls to a level acceptable to the market and is available in sufficient quantities, it will naturally replace plastic straws. But this requires entrepreneurs to step up technological innovation and invest in research and development to provide better alternatives to the market.
As for the quality, biodegradable plastics should be treated with caution and consumers should not directly use them as an alternative material or even a solution. In fact, biodegradable plastic is not a high-end technology; it needs to be sorted first, and then it requires to be dealt in the industrial composting conditions under strict control of constant temperature and humidity for back-end treatment. However, in many areas, there are no professional industrial composting facilities and recycling systems are still under construction, making it difficult for authorities to ensure that the biodegradable plastic waste can be collected and handled correctly.
A two-year experiment in which commercially available biodegradable plastics (mostly Polylactic Acid Material) were placed in seawater and home composting facilities showed that the vast majority of them had little chance of breaking down in the natural environment. Greenpeace activists concern that one type of plastic pollution could be replaced by another. Therefore, the more feasible solution is that the governments establish sufficient recyclable logistics distribution equipment with recycling system to encourage the reuse of non-disposable products and packaging.
Giant Firms’ Promise to Ban Plastics Revealed a Positive Development Trend
In July 2018, Starbucks announced that plastic straws would be banned from all of its stores worldwide by 2020. Meanwhile, McDonald’s has stopped using plastic straws in some other countries and replaced them with paper ones. McDonald’s has tested paper straws in stores in Belgium, while stores in the United States, France, Sweden and other countries introduced paper straws at the end of last year. KFC has stopped using straws with plastic LIDS at 84 outlets in Singapore. IKEA has also previously announced that it would phase out all single-use plastics in its European stores by 2020.
Nestle also announced that it would restrict the use of plastic straws from all product lines in February and develop biodegradable water bottles to reduce plastic waste. Besides, last year, the European Bottled Water Alliance, which represents approximately 600 natural mineral and mineral water producers, set a target of using at least 25 percent of r-PET in plastic bottles on average by 2025 and collecting 90 percent of PET bottles by 2025.
Coca-Cola European Partners have committed to collecting 100 percent of their packaging in Western Europe and using 50 percent recycled plastic in PET bottles by 2025, whereas PepsiCo aims to use 50 percent recycled plastic in its bottles across the Eu by 2030, up from 13 percent now, with an interim goal of 45 percent by 2025.
All these measures due to corporate social responsibility would contribute to reducing plastic pollution and protecting the environment.
By Xin Wang
