Get Critical Updates on Plastic Ban
Preface
Recently, a plastics producer’s order event in South China has attracted wide attention from the market. This incident escalated the market sentiment caused by plastic ban, as it is one of the leading degradable plastics producers. Continuous implementation of plastic ban brings opportunities for degradable plastic. Some plastic producers and leading chemical companies, such as Wanhua Chemical, will gradually deploy degradable plastic field. Between 2021 and 2022, SCI predicts that newly added capacity of degradable plastics will reach 1.32 million tons. The long-term impact of degradable plastics on the polyolefin industry chain will be expanded gradually. SCI Plastics will simply sort out the latest developments of plastic ban for you.
On August 6, Guizhou issued the Implementation Plan to Further Strengthen the Treatment on Plastic Pollution, requiring that by the end of 2020, the production and sale of disposable foamed plastic tableware and disposable plastic cotton swabs shall be prohibited throughout the province; the production of daily chemical articles containing plastic microbeads shall be prohibited. By the end of 2022, the province will ban the sale of daily chemical articles containing plastic microbeads.
On August 3, Hebei issued the Implementation Plan to Further Strengthen the Treatment on Plastic Pollution, requiring that by the end of 2020, the province bans the use of non-degradable disposable plastic straws in the catering industry; dine-in places in urban built-up areas, Zhangjiakou Chongli District built-up areas, Xiong’an New District start-up areas, Beijing Daxing International Airport Economic Zone, etc. prohibited use of non-degradable disposable plastic tableware.
On July 10, the Notice on Solidly Advancing Plastic Pollution Treatment was released. It required provincial implementation plans to be issued before mid-August, to refine and decompose tasks, as well as layer responsibilities. It also supervised provincial capital cities, cities separately listed in the plan, and cities at prefecture level and above, etc., to analyze and evaluate key and difficult issues in various fields and propose practical and effective specific measures, combined with local realities and based on the phased goals at the end of 2020.
This Notice has five main requirements as follows:
1. To strengthen the supervision and inspection on the production and sale of banned plastic products.
2. To strengthen the supervision and management on banned and restricted plastics in retail catering field, etc.
3. To promote the treatment of agricultural film.
4. To standardize the collection and disposal of plastic waste.
5. To carry out special cleaning up of plastic garbage.
Degradable plastics mainly include polyester degradable plastics, such as PLA (poly lactic acid), PBS (poly butylene succinate), PBAT (polybutylene adipate terephthalate), and starch-based plastics. In terms of production technology, PLA has high technical barriers, and China still relies on imports. China’s Henan Jindan Lactic Acid Technology still debug the PLA unit. PBAT production technology is relatively mature in China. There are two main types, involving technology provided by BASF and technology provided by Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, CAS. From the perspective of production costs, PLA and PBAT were poorly accepted by end users because of higher feedstock prices than the PE feedstock ones.
According to SCI’s research, in 2010, coal-based synthesis gas-to-PGA technology made a breakthrough. In 2018, Shanghai Pujing Chemical Technology started construction of related projects in Baotou, Inner Mongolia. If the coal-based synthesis gas-to-PGA technology is mature, cost of degradable plastics production will be effectively reduced. On the other hand, PGA is more suitable in medical field instead of packaging field due to its good degradability and insufficient performance temporarily.
According to SCI’s research, some plastic producers and leading chemical companies, such as Wanhua Chemical, will gradually deploy degradable plastic field. Between 2021 and 2022, SCI predicts that newly added capacity of degradable plastics will reach 1.32 million tons. The long-term impact of degradable plastics on the polyolefin industry chain will be expanded gradually, in anticipation of production cost reduction brought by technological upgrading in the future. In the short run, the PP supply-demand fundamentals are unlikely to change substantially, which will be mostly impacted by sentiment. Players are recommended to be cautious in facing market fluctuations.
