Two new regulations on biodegradable plastics formally implemented

Since June 1, 2022, two new regulations, "Requirements for Degradability and Labeling of Biodegradable Plastics and Products" and "Biodegradable Drinking Straw" have been formally implemented. Pang Guanglian, member of the standing Committee of the Party Committee and Deputy Secretary-General of the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation and Secretary-General of the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry International production capacity Cooperative Enterprise Alliance, said that the formulation and implementation of national standards not only provides a programmatic document for the biodegradable plastics industry, but also helps to regulate the investment behavior of industries such as BDO in the upper reaches of the industry. It is hoped that the new regulations can restrain the impulsive development trend of the upstream and downstream industrial chain.

The huge blue ocean market behind the biodegradable plastics industry attracts investors to join one after another. The most common projects launched by domestic enterprises in this field are polylactic acid (PLA) and copolymer of butylene adipate and butylene terephthalate (PBAT). Among them, the planned capacity of the PBAT project alone has exceeded 10 million tons/year, which led to the price rise of the upstream BDO and the hot construction of BDO project.

Pang Guanglian said that according to the current situation, the complete replacement of domestic disposable plastic products requires at most less than 4 million tons of degradable plastic per year, not to mention that many disposable plastic products are difficult to replace. Moreover, biodegradable plastics are still controversial worldwide. In the final edition of the "Disposable Plastics Guide" issued by the European Union, all oxidizing degradable plastics are prohibited. The first reason is that some degradable plastics need a certain temperature and humidity to complete the degradation. Secondly, at present, some enterprises make the originally non-degradable plastics collapse into small pieces in a relatively short time by adding starch and photooxidants, but these invisible "plastic beads" are more harmful to the environment. Thirdly, based on the premise that plastics are "biodegradable", it will lead to an increase rather than a decrease in the use of plastics.