In recent years, there are many articles about marine garbage and micro plastics in the media, which makes people talk about plastic color change, and various calls for plastic prohibition or restriction continue.
In 2019, the European Union issued the "sup directive". Although the ban on a small number of specific disposable plastic products is only part of the content, a large number of media published relevant news with the title "EU passed the ban on plastic products..." Such a title selectively ignores the fact that only ten disposable plastic products are prohibited in the directive, and that there is still a large amount of content in the directive on plastic recycling and recycling.
Similarly, on January 16, 2020, the national development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of ecological environment jointly issued the opinions on Further Strengthening the treatment of plastic pollution (hereinafter referred to as the "opinions"), the purpose of which is to strengthen the treatment of plastic pollution rather than the elimination of plastic, and the principle is to "prohibit, replace, strengthen recycling and resource-based energy utilization", It is also generally referred to by many media and individuals as the upgraded version of "plastic ban order" or "plastic restriction order".
On January 8, 2008, the general office of the State Council issued the notice on restricting the production and sale of plastic shopping bags, which was known as the old version of the "plastic ban order". In fact, this article only forbids the production and sale of ultra-thin plastic bags, but not completely forbids the paid use of other plastic bags.
It has been a long time since the term "plastic prohibition order" was proposed. Throughout the world, many countries and regions have issued various plastic prohibition orders. Among them, most of the ban on plastic bags is strictly a "one-time plastic bag ban", and a considerable part of the ban is only a ban on supermarkets and other businesses to actively provide customers with free one-time plastic bags.
When many media and individuals cheer for one "plastic ban" after another, they forget the fact that the hand-held shopping bags provided by the supermarket are really only "disposable"? Can't they be reused? And can disposable paper bags or cloth bags really be better and more environmentally friendly than disposable plastic bags?
Specifically, most of the time, the media and even some legislators think that disposable plastic bags are not environmentally friendly, so they should be banned, while paper bags or cloth bags are usually used as the preferred alternative products. In essence, there is a confusion of the concept that the media or legislators believe that "reusable" paper bags or cloth bags are more environmentally friendly than "disposable" plastic bags.
This conclusion is correct. However, the neglected fact here is that plastic bags are not born to be "disposable", and they are totally "reusable"!
The research results of many countries in Europe and the United States show that consumers will have different degrees of reuse behavior for plastic shopping bags, or continue to be shopping bags, or use them for recyclable products, or at least use them as garbage bags.
And whenever there is a ban or restriction on plastic bags, the sales volume of plastic garbage bags will increase. Because when there is no shopping bag available, consumers usually need to specially purchase garbage bags for garbage delivery.
In this way, it is often "plastic ban" that reduces the use of plastic shopping bags, but at the same time increases the use of plastic garbage bags - has the effect of plastic ban or plastic reduction really been achieved?
On the other hand, the current alternatives to plastic bags are often paper bags or cloth bags. In terms of cloth bags, the statistics of shopping bags in British supermarkets are very thoughtful.
According to a report jointly released by the EIA and Greenpeace, British supermarkets banned plastic shopping bags in 2019 and replaced them with so-called environmental protection bags for life.
However, the report reveals: on the one hand, most of these so-called environmental protection bags are made of non-woven fabrics. According to the plastic composition, because the bags are thicker and heavier, they contain more plastic components than the previous plastic shopping bags, which most consumers do not understand; on the other hand, although these "environmental protection bags" are defined as reusable, consumers It is not reused, but used as a disposable shopping bag.
Data shows that in 2019, 10 supermarkets, which account for 95% of the UK retail market, sold an astonishing 1.5 billion "green bags", with an average of 54 per household - almost one per week.
So it seems that consumers' disposable habits have not changed!
As Juliet Phillips, director of the environmental survey's marine program, said: "the survey shows that retailers need to change their targets to drive a real reduction in disposable packaging and items. We need to fundamentally address our one-time culture through institutional change, not material change. Replacing one disposable material with another is not the solution. "
At present, the epidemic of covid-19 is raging all over the world. In order to fight the epidemic together, public health and safety awareness is being raised to a new height. Under this premise, the discussion about the prohibition of disposable plastic bags and the limitation of other disposable plastic products has a new perspective.
However, after many governments implemented the "closure order", the catering industry was unable to provide on-site food services, and instead increased the intensity of takeout services, resulting in a large increase in the consumption of lunch boxes and disposable plastic bags. Residents are isolated at home, and bottled water has become a must for many people's emergency supplies. Some governments also suggest that residents reserve enough bottled water for at least two weeks.
To this end, while recommending that most of the production enterprises stop work and reduce production, many governments have listed the disposable plastic packaging products manufacturing enterprises as "key" industries as well as medical care, food and other production enterprises, to protect them, because at the current critical moment, the inevitability or lack of plastic packaging is more prominent.
UNEP issued a report on June 5, 2018, "disposable Plastics: a roadmap for sustainable development".
However, after many governments implemented the "closure order", the catering industry was unable to provide on-site food services, and instead increased the intensity of takeout services, resulting in a large increase in the consumption of lunch boxes and disposable plastic bags. Residents are isolated at home, and bottled water has become a must for many people's emergency supplies. Some governments also suggest that residents reserve enough bottled water for at least two weeks.
To this end, while recommending that most of the production enterprises stop work and reduce production, many governments have listed the disposable plastic packaging products manufacturing enterprises as "key" industries as well as medical care, food and other production enterprises, to protect them, because at the current critical moment, the inevitability or lack of plastic packaging is more prominent.
UNEP issued a report on June 5, 2018, "disposable Plastics: a roadmap for sustainable development".
This paper summarizes the effects of "plastic ban orders" (mostly on measures to ban or restrict plastic bags or levy taxes on plastic bags) in more than 60 countries and regions around the world: about 50% of countries say that it is too early to judge whether there is an impact on the environment; in about 30% In the remaining 20% of countries, the ban has resulted in a "significant drop" in the use of plastic bags, with little or no change.
The report also acknowledges that "it is too early to draw definitive conclusions on the environmental impact of plastic prohibition and taxation".
The use of plastics is widespread, and the material characteristics of plastics are "cheap and durable", which is also the main reason why plastic pollution has become a global environmental and climate change challenge. But we need to realize that the problem that needs to be solved is "plastic pollution" or "plastic waste", not plastic (material).
Under this premise, "no plastic" is the best solution?
What plastics should or can be banned?
Will the simple "plastic ban" lead to the solution of an existing problem and the result of a new problem?
There may not be a simple answer to this, but we need to carefully rethink how to better produce, use and manage disposable plastics in order to get a systematic solution.
