Domestic information:

1. Zhengyueming, deputy to the National People's Congress: strengthen efforts to promote the use of biodegradable materials to replace plastics

Core tip: the two sessions were held in full swing. Zheng Mingyue brought 'suggestions on strengthening the promotion of the use of biodegradable materials to replace plastics' in this year's two sessions

[China Packaging Network News] Zheng Mingyue, a deputy to the National People's Congress, brought the 'suggestions on strengthening the promotion of the use of biodegradable materials to replace plastics' at this year's two sessions. He said: 'first of all, regulations restricting the use of plastics should be formulated in the fields of disposable plastic packaging, food packaging, shopping bags, agricultural mulching films and so on, and efforts should be made to encourage and promote the use of biodegradable materials.' He suggested formulating regulations at the national level to encourage consumers and practitioners to use 'green' biodegradable materials.

2. Waste tape travels around the earth 600 times a year. This 100% fully degradable plastic is too timely!

In recent years, China's express delivery industry has grown rapidly with an annual growth rate of 10billion pieces, and packaging waste has caused an unbearable burden on the environment. Fortunately, now more and more people have paid attention to 'degradable packaging', which opens an important channel for alleviating environmental pressure. Now there is a 100% fully degradable plastic solution in front of you!

3. Printing plants in many places have just started and stopped production, and environmental protection may be stricter in 2019

[China Packaging Network News] recently, many regions have issued orange warnings of heavily polluted weather, and issued documents requiring the launch of emergency response measures, including strict control of industrial enterprises and the implementation of production suspension and restriction measures in the printing industry that is prone to pollution. It is expected that the environmental protection will be further strengthened in 2019. In this regard, the factory owner said: it is unbearable!

International Information:

1. In the past two years, more and more catering giants have successively announced to stop using plastic straws, which is a good thing, but it is still a drop in the bucket, because products like plastic straws here are only a small part of the 335 million tons of plastic products in the world every year. The fundamental way may be to find an environmentally friendly plastic substitute. Recently, a new study found that a protein extracted from squid can be processed into fiber and film, and can be mass produced through transgenic technology, which is expected to reduce plastic pollution. This study was published in the journal frontiers in chemistry and was led by Melik Demirel, the optical fiber technology research center of the University of Pennsylvania. According to Melik Demirel, this protein comes from the annular teeth (SRT) of the squid's predator arm and can be used to produce tough, soft and biodegradable plastics.

2. The so-called micro plastic refers to plastic particles with a diameter of less than 5 mm. Although they are invisible to the naked eye, they can also bring great pollution, which is called 'PM 2.5' in the ocean. A study by the University of Sydney found that washing machine wastewater is an important source of micro plastic pollution. On average, 1900 micro plastic fibers can be produced per piece of clothing. These fibers are difficult to separate and filter, and more than half of them will be discharged into rivers and oceans with the sewage treatment system.

3. Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is the largest polyester product in the world, with an annual output of more than 26million tons, which is used for carpets, clothing and disposable beverage bottles. Nowadays, only beverage bottles are recycled, and the recovery rate is very low. Most of the waste is piled up in landfills or the environment. This is because the performance of recycled PET (RPET) is not as good as that of the original material. However, a new 'upgraded recycling' process is said to make it better. Developed by scientists at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) of the U.S. Department of energy, the technology first melts waste pet items (such as bottles) and then adds organic fibers obtained from plant waste. The final product is two types of fiber reinforced RPET, which is said to be two to three times stronger than the original and more durable. This paper was recently published in Joule magazine.

Paper link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joule.2019.01.018

4. Recently, the most eye-catching polylactic acid products are tableware, and the most basic element of tableware is heat resistance. However, because polylactic acid can be decomposed at high temperature, it has become an environmental protection material. How can it be heat-resistant?

Some Taiwanese media pointed out that pure polylactic acid is not suitable for making tableware directly, because as long as it exceeds 60 degrees, polylactic acid will begin to soften and deform. He even said, 'so if you take a pure polylactic acid cup to microwave, it will be a cup when you go in, and it may become a pool when you come out.'

In order to change the problem that polylactic acid tableware cannot be heated, most manufacturers will mix polylactic acid and traditional plastic PP to increase the heat resistance and durability of tableware.

However, with the addition of plastic, polylactic acid cannot be 100% decomposed. In addition, these plastic hybrids will instead make recyclable plastic, which is adulterated with polylactic acid, become recyclable waste, forming 'plastic pollution'. （The News Lens，Taiwan）