What is the relationship between the plastic ban and plastic recycling

In order to reduce the waste of energy and resources and environmental pollution, the General Office of the State Council on December 31, 2007 promulgated the "Notice on the Restriction of the Production, Sale and Use of Plastic Shopping Bags" (State Council [2007] No. 72, hereinafter referred to as "Plastic Restriction"). (hereinafter referred to as the "Plastic Restriction Order"). Since the implementation of the "Plastic Restriction Order" on June 1, 2008, the issue of plastic bag fees and alternatives has triggered thinking and debate in all sectors of society. The main reason for the promulgation of the "Plastic Restriction Order" is the excessive use of plastic bags and the lack of recycling treatment, but the "Plastic Restriction Order" is not a "Plastic Ban Order", especially when there is a lack of truly environmentally friendly alternatives, the importance of plastic bags is still indispensable. The importance of plastic bags is still undeniable, especially when there is a lack of truly environmentally friendly alternatives. How to reduce the use and disposal of plastic bags and improve resource utilization is the key to solving the current conflict. Therefore, analyzing the impact of the "Plastic Restriction Order" on the recycling of plastic bags can provide relevant support for the future development of the policy direction and improvement of plastic bag resource recycling.

2 "Plastic limit order" on the impact of plastic bag recycling

2.1 China's plastic bag recycling profile and problems

"Plastic limit order" for the plastic bag mainly refers to PE plastic bags, the vast majority of recycled plastic bags are processed into recycled plastic bags. After recycling, most of them are processed into recycled plastic particles and recycled plastic products. However, due to the current domestic production and consumption is still in the "from resources to products, and then to the waste" of the traditional model, so that a large number of reusable resources, including plastic bags, are directly discarded as garbage. According to the China Plastic Association of Plastic Recycling Professional Committee statistics, China's daily use of plastic bags up to 3 billion, of which only for food plastic bags up to 1 billion. At present, only Beijing annually discarded plastic bags up to 2.3 billion, resulting in 140,000 tons of waste plastic packaging waste, accounting for 3% of the total amount of domestic garbage; Shanghai produces 190,000 tons of waste plastic packaging waste each year, accounting for 7% of the total amount of domestic garbage.

So, China's waste plastic bag recycling has a strong resource advantage, in the formal operation, there can be a good economic and environmental benefits, not only can reduce the waste of resources, but also help to curb the proliferation of garbage, reduce "white" pollution.

However, at present, China's waste plastic bag recycling industry still exists in more problems. Mainly:

(1) Due to the primary plastic bag manufacturers are mostly small and informal, the production of plastic bags are often of uneven quality, recycling difficulties, recycling value is limited, the purchase price is low, so in the collection of garbage, transportation, disposal of waste in the various aspects of the collection and sorting procedures, only a small number of waste buyers can be recovered to the quality of the better plastic bags. Therefore, the quality of virgin plastic bags is an important factor limiting their recycling price and hindering recycling.

(2) The current plastic bag recycling industry in China belongs to the survival of the industry in the cracks. Although it is important for the resources and environment, and even the long-term development of the country, but at the same time there are special features: the enterprise scale is generally small, there is a considerable part of the workshop-type recycling processing sites. Due to the innate inadequacy of most of these processing sites, technology, equipment, simple, in a spontaneous, backward state, and therefore very easy to cause serious pollution of the environment.

2.2 The role of the "Plastic Restriction Order" on the recycling of plastic bags

The effective implementation of the "Plastic Restriction Order" will play a positive role in the recycling of plastic bags in view of the problems of the domestic recycling of plastic bags.

(1) For the quality of plastic bags, the "Plastic Restriction Order" clearly stipulates that "the production, sale and use of plastic shopping bags with a thickness of less than 0.025 millimeters are prohibited nationwide". This will improve the quality of plastic bags play a very significant role, and the thickness of the increase will also lead to the cost of plastic bags and price increases, which will stimulate the economic benefits of plastic bag recycling rose. The introduction of national mandatory standards for plastic shopping bags, the impact of the plastic bag products industry has a great influence on the previous plastic bags are no origin, production companies and other identification, but the new standard requires that the surface of the plastic shopping bags must be clearly marked production company name, address, raw materials used in the production of information for law enforcement agencies to regulate. According to the "plastic" requirements, many companies can not meet the standards will be eliminated, promoting the improvement of the quality of plastic bags, which in turn facilitates the recycling of plastic bags.

(2) For the use of plastic bags, the "plastic limit" requires the implementation of a system of paid use of plastic shopping bags. The role of economic leverage is very obvious: paid use can not only effectively reduce the use of plastic bags, but also to make the economic value attached to the plastic bags on the visible, while for the increase in the price of plastic bag recycling, to promote its recycling to play a certain role in promoting.

(3) The "Plastic Restriction Order" has made clear requirements for the recycling of plastic bags, and specific requirements have been put forward by the sanitation department, environmental protection department, science and technology department, as well as the financial and taxation departments, etc. With the separate collection and disposal of household waste, the recycling of plastic bags has become more important. With the implementation of separate collection and treatment of household waste, the establishment of a sound recycling network of plastic bags, the development of recycling enterprises, as well as the introduction and implementation of relevant norms, standards and policies, and the improvement of the whole process of management system, will stimulate and promote the recycling of plastic bags.

In summary, it can be predicted that, with the "plastic limit" implementation of the blind spot narrowing and sweeping, when the substandard plastic bags gradually withdraw from the market, the quality of the original plastic bag obstacles will also disappear; accompanied by the internalization of the negative externalities of the plastic bag under the price leverage and the value of the bag, the value of recycling of discarded plastic bags will also rise; in addition, the value of plastic bags will also rise. Value will also rise; coupled with the development of the plastic bag recycling industry, the plastic bag recycling utilization rate will be greatly enhanced.

3 The current situation of plastic bag recycling after the implementation of the "plastic limit order"

Although in the long run, the "plastic limit order" on plastic bag recycling will have a better guiding and promoting role, but the author of this paper is currently doing research on the situation is not optimistic. However, the results of the research done by the author of this paper show that the situation is not optimistic. In this paper, we selected three residential areas in Yangpu District, Shanghai, namely Oriental Home (Lane 128, Guoshun Road), Renheyuan (No. 240, Zhengtong Road) and Lane 25, Guoquan Road (hereinafter replaced by Area A, Area B and Area C), and conducted a survey of plastic bags in domestic garbage in the residential areas in March and October 2008, i.e., before and after the implementation of the Plastic Restriction Order. In March and October 2008, that is, before and after the implementation of the "plastic restriction", a one-week sorting study was conducted on the plastic bags in the residential neighborhood. The results show that the short-term implementation of the "plastic restriction" on the recycling of plastic bags is mainly reflected in the following points.

3.1 The quality of plastic bags is still uneven, the quality of the poorer many, not conducive to recycling

(1) "Plastic limit" after the implementation of the implementation of the supermarket shopping plastic bags in the residents' living garbage has decreased significantly, of which the rate of reduction of the smallest in Area C also amounted to 10.24%; by contrast, the consumption of non-marking plastic bags In contrast, the consumption of non-marking plastic bags did not decrease but increased, and the vast majority of the "plastic limit" prohibited ultra-thin plastic bags, the largest increase in Area B, amounting to 20.15%. The plastic bag disposal situation in the three districts before and after the implementation of the "plastic limit" is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Composition of discarded plastic bags before and after the implementation of the "plastic limit"

(2) For plastic bags with a thickness of 0.025mm or more as stipulated in the "plastic limit", the consumption of the three districts before and after the implementation of the three districts have risen but the overall increase is not significant, especially in District B, which has the biggest increase of 20.15%. The overall increase is not significant, especially in neighborhoods A and B. In contrast, the impact of neighborhood C is larger. In contrast, the impact of neighborhood C is larger, the thickness of 0.025mm or more plastic bags in the "plastic restrictions" after the implementation of the consumption of a significant increase, but thicker plastic bags accounted for all the plastic bags of the proportion is still very low, only 8.54%. The situation of thick plastic bags in the domestic waste of the three neighborhoods before and after the implementation of the "plastic limit" is shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Comparison of thick plastic bags discarded before and after the implementation of the "plastic limit order"

The results of the study show that the short-term implementation of the "plastic limit order" has not achieved the expected effect of improving the quality of plastic bags, and thus the promotion of plastic bag recycling is also relatively limited. The promotion of plastic bag recycling is also relatively limited.

3.2 Significant increase in the proportion of unmarked plastic bags used as garbage bagsBased on the gradual formation of the habit of bagging garbage by urban residents in China, the use of discarded plastic bags as garbage bags can also be considered as a form of reuse. The research shows that after the implementation of the "Plastic Restriction Order", the proportion of smaller, poorer quality unmarked plastic bags used as garbage bags has increased significantly (as shown in Figure 3). Before the implementation of the "Plastic Restriction Order", the average utilization rate of discarded unmarked plastic bags used as garbage bags was only 7.95% in Area A, and increased to 16.60% after the "Plastic Restriction Order"; the increase in Area C was slightly slower than that of the other two districts, but the change was also more pronounced. The increase in Area C is slightly slower than that in the other two neighborhoods, but the change is also more obvious. The main reason is that after the implementation of the "plastic limit", most of the supermarkets and shopping malls have implemented the paid use of plastic bags, the consumption of such plastic bags by residents has dropped significantly, reducing to a greater extent the source of free garbage bags for the residents, so that in the life of garbage bagging habits of the role of the original directly discarded non-marking plastic bags are also included in the category of garbage bags. the category of garbage bags. Therefore, from this point of view, the "Plastic Restriction Order" has a certain role in promoting the reuse rate of smaller, poorer quality plastic bags.

Figure 3 Proportion of unmarked plastic bags used as garbage bags

3.3 Increase in the reuse rate of supermarket plastic bags

The research data shows that after the implementation of the "Plastic Restriction Order", the waste rate of supermarket plastic bags of the residents of the three districts has shown a significant decrease (as shown in Figure 4), especially in District B, the decrease is up to 23.65%. 23.65%. Analyzing the reasons, on the one hand, in the economic leverage, the use of supermarket plastic shopping bags has been significantly reduced; on the other hand, with the "Plastic Restriction Order" after the reuse rate of supermarket plastic shopping bags increased.

Figure 4 Waste of plastic shopping bags in supermarkets

In the relatively short period of time since the implementation of the "Plastic Restriction Order", there is still a large demand for plastic bags. Before the implementation of the "plastic limit", free plastic bags to better meet the needs of residents; "plastic limit" after the implementation of the "plastic limit", it is divided into various types of environmental protection shopping bags, reuse of the original plastic bags and purchase of new plastic bags three ways. Although the use of environmentally friendly shopping bags has risen, but overall very limited; and the purchase of new plastic bags has also greatly reduced. According to the China Chain Store Management Association statistics, "Plastic Restriction Order" after the implementation of a month, the use of plastic shopping bags in supermarkets across the country, the overall reduction of 70% to 80%. Therefore, the reuse of existing better quality supermarket plastic shopping bags, has become a very important way to solve the demand for plastic bags of residents. From this perspective, the "Plastic Restriction Order" has promoted the reuse of supermarket plastic bags. 3.4 The degree of bulk garbage has increased, will have a certain impact on the recycling of plastic bags

Currently China's urban residents of living garbage in the form of bagging as the main form of "plastic limit" after the implementation of the implementation of the degree of bulk garbage placed increased compared with the implementation of the former. Research shows that: Area C in the "plastic limit" before the implementation of almost no bulk garbage, and after the bulk garbage in each bucket of garbage about 20%; Area A in the implementation of the "plastic limit" before and after the implementation of the amount of bulk garbage rose from 15% to 20% to 20% to 30%. 30%. Considering the contamination of plastic bags by garbage and the rising cost and burden of "decontamination" of contaminated plastic bags in the process of reuse, it can be assumed that the rise in the phenomenon of bulk garbage disposal resulting from the implementation of the "Plastic Restriction Order" will have a certain impact on the recycling of plastic bags, but the exact impact is yet to be seen. The impact of the implementation of the "plastic limit" can be considered to have a certain impact on the recycling of plastic bags, but the specific impact of how to be further investigated and studied.

4 Conclusion

"Plastic limit order" touches the whole process of production, sales, use and recycling of plastic bags, if effectively implemented, will play a better role in promoting the recycling of plastic bags, but in the short term, the impact is more limited, mainly for the short-term quality of discarded plastic bags has not been significantly improved. The quality of plastic bags has not been significantly improved; however, the short-term implementation of the "Plastic Restriction Order" has led to a significant increase in the proportion of unmarked plastic bags used as garbage bags, and the reuse rate of plastic shopping bags in supermarkets has also increased.

In order to achieve the expected effect of the "Plastic Restriction Order", to promote the recycling of plastic bags in China, and to fundamentally solve the problem of plastic bag pollution, the following suggestions are put forward:

(1) Continue to promote the "Plastic Restriction Order", in particular, it is necessary to Break through the bottleneck in the implementation of vegetable farms, small stores, stores and vendors, etc., the full implementation of the "Plastic Restriction Order", and generally improve the quality of plastic bags.

(2) Establish a sound system of recycling plastic bags for residents. The establishment of community mechanisms and on this basis to establish a plastic bag recycling system; the recycling of plastic bags front-end, before entering the mixed waste in all aspects of the logistics chain, including source management, sales and distribution, recycling, etc., to consider its recycling, as far as possible, the process of internalization of the negative externalities, and to improve the recycling level and efficiency.

(3) Establish a guarantee mechanism for the recycling of plastic bags. A community participation mechanism can be established to reduce the cost of recycling plastic bags and waste pollution, and promote the reuse of plastic bags. For the production and sales links, a license management system can be established to implement the content of the ban on the production of ultra-thin plastic bags. In addition, in order to stimulate the environmental responsibility of all types of social subjects, can be clear on the basis of the responsibilities and obligations of the relevant responsible parties, the establishment of a product liability system, the levy of special fees for plastic bags, in the form of regulations and other forms of determination of the obligations of the producer, seller, consumer recycling. At the same time, it is also necessary to support the corresponding government economic incentives, through the "awards, compensation, return, let" and other ways to incentivize the community to strengthen the recycling of plastic bags.