How big can fully degradable plastics be in the domestic market in the future?
59% of the white pollution comes from packaging and agricultural film plastic products. The disposable and difficult-to-recycle characteristics of this kind of plastic are not suitable for plastic recycling. Only biodegradable plastics can fundamentally solve the white pollution problem. Biodegradable plastics include PLA (polylactic acid), PBAT (polyadipate/butylene terephthalate) and PHA (polyhydroxyalkanoate), etc.
It is an important category of degradable plastics. Because of its similar properties to ordinary plastics, good degradability and high safety, it is the most widely used in European and American countries.
In the fields of packaging, textiles and agricultural films, PLA and PBS have the largest consumption; in some high value-added fields, PHA is widely used in medical implant materials.
According to PEMRG statistics, the global demand for plastics reached 359 million tons in 2018, of which the demand for packaging plastics reached 144 million tons. There is a huge market for alternatives to degradable plastics.
According to IHS statistics, in 2018, the global plastic application field was mainly the packaging field, which accounted for 40% of the market, and the global plastic pollution also mainly came from the packaging field, accounting for 59%. Packaging plastics are not only the main source of white pollution, but also have the characteristics of being disposable (if recycled, the number of cycles is high), difficult to recycle (using and abandoned channels are scattered), low performance requirements and high impurity content requirements.
Degradable plastics and recycled plastics are two potential options for solving the white pollution problem. Degradable plastics refer to plastics whose products have various properties that can meet the performance requirements of use, and the properties remain unchanged during the storage period, but can be degraded into environmentally sound substances under natural environmental conditions after use.
Degradable plastics can be classified by the way of degradation or different raw materials. According to the classification of degradation methods, degradable plastics can be divided into four categories: biodegradable plastics, light degradable plastics, light and biodegradable plastics, and water degradable plastics. At present, the technology of photodegradable plastics and photo- and biodegradable plastics is still immature, and there are few products on the market. Therefore, the degradable plastics mentioned hereafter are all biodegradable plastics and water-degradable plastics. According to the classification of raw materials, degradable plastics can be divided into bio-based degradable plastics and petroleum-based degradable plastics. Biodegradable plastics are plastics produced from biomass, which can reduce the consumption of traditional energy sources such as petroleum, including PLA (polylactic acid), PHA (polyhydroxyalkanoate), PGA (polyglutamic acid), etc. . Petroleum-based degradable plastics are plastics produced with fossil energy as raw materials, mainly including PBS (polybutylene succinate), PBAT (polybutylene adipate/terephthalate), PCL (polycaprolactone Ester) etc.
Degradable plastics have their advantages in performance, practicality, degradability, and safety. In terms of performance, biodegradable plastics can reach or exceed the performance of traditional plastics in certain areas; in terms of practicality, biodegradable plastics have similar application performance and hygienic performance to similar traditional plastics; in terms of degradability, biodegradable plastics After use, it can be degraded quickly in the natural environment (specific microorganisms, temperature, humidity), and become fragments or non-toxic gases that are easily used by the environment, reducing the impact on the environment; in terms of safety, degradable plastics are degraded The substances produced or remaining in the process are harmless to the environment and will not affect the survival of humans and other organisms. At present, the biggest obstacle to replacing traditional plastics is also the disadvantage of biodegradable plastics in that their production costs are higher than similar traditional plastics or recycled plastics. Therefore, in application fields such as packaging and agricultural film that have short use time, are difficult to recycle and separate, have low performance requirements, and have high impurity content requirements, degradable plastics have an alternative advantage.
Recycled plastics refer to plastic raw materials obtained after processing waste plastics through physical or chemical methods such as pretreatment, melt granulation, and modification. The biggest advantage of recycled plastics is that they are cheaper than new materials and biodegradable plastics. According to different performance requirements, only certain properties of plastics can be processed and corresponding products can be manufactured. In the case of not too many cycles, recycled plastics can maintain similar performance to traditional plastics, or they can maintain stable performance by mixing recycled materials with new materials. However, after many cycles, the performance of recycled plastics drops greatly, or to an unusable level. In addition, it is difficult for recycled plastics to maintain good hygiene performance under the premise of ensuring economy. Therefore, recycled plastics are suitable for areas where the number of cycles is small and the hygienic performance is not high.
By comparison, degradable plastics, because of their more stable performance and lower recycling costs, have alternative advantages in applications such as packaging and agricultural films that are short in use and difficult to recycle and separate; and recycled plastics have lower prices. And production cost, it has advantages in the application scenarios of living utensils, building materials, electrical appliances and so on that use a long time and are easy to sort and recycle. White pollution mainly comes from the packaging field, and the degradable plastics have more room to play. With policy promotion and cost reduction, the future degradable plastics market has a bright future.
In the packaging field, the replacement of biodegradable plastics is being realized. The application fields of plastics are very wide, and different fields have different requirements for plastics. Automobiles, home appliances and other fields require plastics to be durable, easy to separate, and the amount of monomer plastics is large, so the position of traditional plastics is relatively stable. In packaging fields such as plastic bags, lunch boxes, mulch, express delivery, etc., due to the low consumption of plastic monomers, it is easy to be polluted and difficult to separate efficiently. This makes degradable plastics more likely to become a substitute for traditional plastics in these fields. This is also verified by the global demand structure for biodegradable plastics in 2019. The demand for biodegradable plastics is mainly concentrated in the packaging field, with flexible packaging and rigid packaging accounting for 53%. The degradable plastics in Western Europe and North America developed earlier and have begun to take shape, and their application areas are concentrated in the packaging industry. In 2017, shopping bags and production bags accounted for the largest share (29%) of the total consumption of degradable plastics in Western Europe; in 2017, food packaging, lunch boxes and tableware accounted for the largest share (53%) of the total consumption of biodegradable plastics in North America. ).
The production of PLA and PBAT in biodegradable plastics is relatively mature, and the total production capacity is in the forefront; PHA has excellent performance, and with the reduction of costs, it is expected to expand from the high-end medical field to packaging, agricultural film and other larger markets in the future. These three degradable plastics may become the main force to replace traditional plastics.
PLA: It is one of the most common degradable plastics. It is a polymer polymerized with lactic acid as the main raw material. The PLA production process is pollution-free, and the product can be biodegradable. The used PLA can be composted and degraded into carbon dioxide and water at a temperature higher than 55°C or under the action of oxygen and microorganisms to realize the material circulation in nature. Have an impact on the environment. At present, the production of polylactic acid mainly adopts lactide ring-opening polymerization process to first dehydrate lactic acid to form oligomers, then depolymerize to form lactide, and then ring-opening polymerization to form polylactic acid. PLA also has reliable biological safety, biodegradability, good mechanical properties and easy processing. It is widely used in packaging, textile industry, agricultural mulch film and biomedical polymer industries. The disadvantage of PLA is that the degradation conditions are relatively harsh. However, due to the relatively low cost of PLA in biodegradable plastics, PLA consumption is at the forefront.
PBS: It is formed by condensation polymerization of succinic acid and 1,4-butanediol. The raw material source is petroleum or biological resource fermentation. PBS is easily decomposed into carbon dioxide and water by a variety of microorganisms or enzymes in nature, and has good biocompatibility and bioabsorbability, and good heat resistance. PBS can be used in the fields of packaging film, tableware, foam packaging materials, daily necessities bottles, medicine bottles, agricultural films, pesticides and fertilizer slow-release materials. Due to the limited raw materials of succinic acid in our country, the derivatives of PBS, PBAT and PBSA, are produced in accordance with their performance. Their performance is basically similar to that of PBS, but the processing performance is not as good as PBS.
PBAT: It is a thermoplastic degradable plastic. It generally uses aliphatic acid and butanediol as raw materials, and is produced by petrochemical or biological fermentation. It has good ductility and elongation at break, as well as good heat resistance and Impact performance. Because PBAT has good film-forming properties and is easy to blow film, it is widely used in the fields of disposable packaging film and agricultural film. In addition, PBAT also has excellent biodegradability, which is very active in the research of degradable plastics and one of the best degradable materials for market applications.
PHA: PHAs biodegradable plastics include polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA), poly-3-hydroxybutyrate (PHB), copolymer of 3-hydroxybutyrate and 3-hydroxyvalerate (PHBV) and 3- Copolymer of hydroxybutyrate and 3-hydroxyhexanoate (PHBH). PHAs degradable plastics are the products of bacteria when the growth conditions are unbalanced. Among many degradable plastics, the degradation method of PHA is the most special. After use, PHA can be completely degraded into β-hydroxybutyric acid, carbon dioxide and water in the organism. PHAs biodegradable plastics have high heat distortion temperature and good biocompatibility, but the processing temperature range is narrow, the thermal stability is poor, the brittleness is large, and the production quality is unstable. They can be used for disposables, medical equipment, surgical gowns, packaging bags and Compost bags, medical sutures, repair devices, bandages, orthopedic needles, anti-adhesion membranes and stents.
In addition to PLA, PBAT and PHA, starch-based plastics (also known as starch compounds or starch mixtures) are the most widely used in Western Europe. Starch-based plastic is a blend of modified starch and degradable polyester (such as PLA/PBAT/PBS/PHA, etc.), which is completely biodegradable, compostable, and has no environmental pollution. Although starch-based plastics are cheap, their service life, mechanical properties and printing performance are poor.
A variety of biodegradable plastics dominate the global biodegradable plastics market. According to data from Zhiyan Consulting, the total global production capacity of degradable plastics in 2019 is about 1.077 million tons, mainly starch-based plastics. The production capacity of starch-based plastics in 2019 was 449,400 tons, accounting for 38.4% of the global degradable plastic production capacity. PLA and PBAT accounted for 25.0% and 24.1% respectively, ranking second and third. The structure of degradable plastics in different regions is also different. Among the main consumption regions, Western Europe is dominated by starch-based plastics; North America, Asia, and Oceania are dominated by PLA. Western Europe is the region with the largest amount of starch-based plastics, mainly because of its early development of degradable plastics. At first, there were no problems of starch-based plastic degradation and incomplete molecular degradation. The United States, as a country following the development of biodegradable plastics, has reduced the amount of starch-based plastics a lot.
Western Europe and North America "plastic restriction order", "plastic ban order" and other relevant laws and regulations have been intensively promulgated to promote the rapid development of overseas degradable plastics market. The “Plastic Restriction Order” was launched earlier, mainly adopting milder and optional methods such as taxation of plastic bags and paid use of plastic bags. In essence, the cost is passed on to consumers, which has limited effect on reducing plastic consumption. . "Plastic ban" has been implemented by governments of various countries in recent years, and its scope of application is wider and deeper. The prohibition of traditional plastics by prohibiting production, sales, and use is to promote the rapid development of degradable plastics in European and American countries. root cause.
As early as the first ten years of the 21st century, some European countries such as Ireland and Italy have begun to issue various types of "plastic restriction orders." The United States also introduced a "plastic restriction order" in 2002, requiring states to formulate plans for the use of biodegradable agricultural plastics, and legislation to promote degradable plastics in 2009. my country has also started legislation since 2008 to use plastic shopping bags for a fee, in line with European and American countries in terms of plastic restriction policies. Since then, the "plastic restriction orders" of various countries have gradually been upgraded to "plastic ban orders." Take the EU’s policy evolution as an example. In 2016, the EU introduced the “Plastic Restriction Order”, requiring member states to reduce the amount of organic waste in landfills to 35% in 1995. In 2018, most EU countries implemented “increase plastic bags”. The use of plastic bags is controlled by means of "price or tax"; in 2019, the European Union passed a wide range of "plastic bans." The decree requires EU member states to ban the use of disposable plastic products including disposable plastic tableware, plastic cotton swabs, plastic straws, and plastic stirring rods by 2021, and replace them with more environmentally friendly materials; by 2025, all members The renewable content of plastic bottles used in the country must reach at least 25%; by 2030, this proportion will increase to 30%. The implementation of the "plastic ban" worldwide has promoted the growth of demand for degradable plastics.
After the introduction of the plastic restrictions and bans in Western Europe and the United States, they have stimulated the degradable plastics market and found that the plastic ban has a stronger effect on the consumption of degradable plastics. The tax cost increased by the plastic restriction order is often transferred to consumers, sometimes affecting consumption growth. Take Western Europe as an example. In 2011, 2014, and 2017, when Western European countries launched the "plastic ban", the consumption of biodegradable plastics increased significantly that year. In comparison, in 2012, 2015, and 2016, when Western European countries implemented the "plastic restriction order," the growth rate of degradable plastic consumption that year dropped significantly. The ban on plastics has a more obvious effect on the increase in consumption of degradable plastics. The nationwide ban on plastics promoted by my country this time will stimulate the growth of domestic demand for degradable plastics.
my country’s "Plastic Restriction Order" was launched earlier. As early as 1999, my country’s State Economic and Trade Commission issued (99) Order No. 6, stipulating a comprehensive ban on the production and use of disposable foamed plastic tableware before the end of 2000. Forefront. On January 19, 2020, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Ecology and Environment announced the "Opinions on Further Strengthening the Treatment of Plastic Pollution". The “plastic ban” not only requires the prohibition and restriction of the use of plastics that are environmentally burdensome, but also accelerates the promotion of plastic alternative products, such as biodegradable plastics and paper packaging, which will help degradable plastics affect traditional plastics. Alternative process. This has also laid a good policy foundation for the rapid development of the alternative product market.
With the gradual formulation and implementation of the ban on plastics throughout the country, although the cost of biodegradable plastics has no comparable advantages, under the enforcement of the ban on plastics, the irreplaceability of biodegradable plastics has become more prominent, and the domestic alternative space is expected to expand to Western Europe. On par with the United States. Beginning in February 2020, Hainan Province, Hebei Province, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Qinghai Province, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Yunnan Province, Guangdong Province, Shandong Province, Henan Province, Zhejiang Province and many other provinces and cities have successively introduced strict plastic pollution management measures . Among them, Hainan Province has even proposed a total ban on the use of non-degradable plastic bags and plastic tableware before the end of 2020; the province will completely ban the use of plastic products listed in the list before the end of 2025. The most stringent "plastic ban orders" have been issued one after another, reflecting the strong enforcement of the "plastic restriction orders".
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