Come to Pick plastic life cycle and national policies.

In 1950, the global annual output of plastics was 2 million metric tons.

By 2015, the figure will reach 380 million metric tons.

Not only that, it is expected that by 2025

There will still be an additional 100 million metric tons of plastic every year.

Among them, 2prime 3 will be released into the environment.

What kind of plastic problems do we face?

How do countries respond?

19:00 in the evening of June eleventh

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What is the plastic cycle?

The whole life cycle of plastics refers to the complete cycle of plastics from generation, use to recycling and reuse.

Many people and even some social organizations often pay attention to the pollution caused by the plastic back-end (such as packaging and waste management, etc.), but it is easy to ignore the front-end problems.

Plastic pollution from the perspective of plastic life cycle can enable us to avoid blind spots as far as possible.

In fact, 99% of the plastic comes from the original fossil fuels: coal, natural gas and oil.

We tend to think that plastic pollution is driven by consumers, but the promotion and praise of the supply side is also a major incentive to promote plastic consumption.

Plastic life cycle

Is closely related to biological environment and human health.

In different stages of the whole life cycle of plastics, people are affected by plastics in different ways, such as inhalation, ingestion or skin contact.

During the extraction and transportation of plastics, benzene, volatile organic compounds and other toxic substances affect the immune system, sensory organs, liver and kidneys by inhalation and ingestion.

In the process of refining and manufacturing plastics, benzene, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and styrene will affect human beings by inhalation, ingestion and skin contact, including cancer, neurotoxicity, reproductive toxicity and so on.

In the process of consumer use of plastics, heavy metals, persistent organic pollutants, carcinogens and endocrine disruptors will be inhaled, ingested and exposed to the skin. Affect the human kidney, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, nervous, reproductive and respiratory systems.

In the process of plastic waste management, toxic recycled substances such as heavy metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons will cause damage to human immune, reproductive, nervous and endocrine systems by inhalation and ingestion.

The greenhouse gases generated by the use and production of plastics account for 10-13% of the global carbon budget (if the rising temperature is controlled within 1.5 degrees Celsius).

Plastic policies and coping strategies in other countries

In such a severe situation of plastic pollution, what are the similarities and differences in the ways of dealing with plastic problems in various countries?

It is not optimistic that countries all over the world are facing serious plastic problems!

Our neighbor, Japan, which is famous for its hygiene habits, has the second largest per capita use of disposable plastic bags in the world, second only to the United States.

South Korea, which loves beer, fried chicken and coffee, consumes a total of 26 billion disposable plastic coffee cups a year.

Since China issued a ban on foreign garbage in 2017, Southeast Asian countries have been forced to become garbage dumps in the world, and they are struggling under pressure from developed countries for the sake of their own ecological environment.

Plastics are common in some underdeveloped countries and regions, such as Africa, Latin America and the Middle East. They have to take tough measures, or even sentence, to limit the use of plastic.

Even if some developed countries have more advanced treatment and recycling technologies, they are still facing a situation that is inadequate-at present, only 12% of plastics are recycled in Australia, less than 10% in Canada, and about 90.5% of plastic waste is not recycled in the UK in 2018.

So, are the governments of developing countries turning a blind eye to the plastic problem? obviously not!

Kenya has imposed what is claimed to be the strictest plastic ban in the world. Kenyans who produce, sell or even use plastic bags face up to four years in prison or a fine of $40,000. Since the ban came into effect, 80% of the population has stopped using plastic handbags, and similar strict bans have emerged in many African countries.

Producing, selling or even using plastic bags in Kenya faces up to four years in prison or a fine of $40000 (282560 yuan).

In June 2019, the Tanzanian government imposed a strict ban on the production, import, sale and use of all disposable plastic bags. The country is also home to popular attractions such as Mount Kilimanjaro and Serengeti, and the plastic waste brought by tourists out of control in the wild has brought disaster to the local ecology. so the government also warned tourists to "hand over" all plastic bags before entering the country.

Manufacturing plastic bags in Tanzania can be punishable by two years in prison or a fine of up to $400000 (2.8256 million yuan). Anyone who finds that carrying luggage may be fined $13 on the spot.

Similarly, Southeast Asian governments are looking for solutions in response to the sudden increase in imported waste.

Malaysia announced a ban on the import of plastic waste in October 2018.

The Philippines also announced restrictions on waste-related imports in 2019, but implementation was suspended for three months.

What about the management of plastic waste in developed countries?

At present, there is only one federal law on plastics (plastic beads) in the United States, and because the states in the United States have a certain degree of independence, the treatment of plastic pollution is not the same.

In 2016, California became the first plastic-banned state. Restaurants are prohibited from offering straws on their own initiative, and grocery stores and other stores are prohibited from providing disposable plastic or paper handbags to customers.

Canada lists plastic products such as shopping bags, straws, cutlery, plates and coffee mixing bars as harmful, which will be banned by 2021. Also emphasize the importance of EPR, ensuring that companies that produce plastic products or sell items with plastic packaging are responsible for managing the collection and recovery of their plastic waste, and companies that produce products are responsible for the scrapping management of their products and packaging.

Even Britain's Queen Elizabeth II joined the anti-plastic army, requiring the use of porcelain, glass or paper cups instead of plastic in her palaces and castles.

In Australia, for example, pressure to dispose of domestic plastics has soared since China imposed an import ban and announced in August 2019 that it was imposing a total ban on the export of recyclable waste.

The plastic policies of different countries have their own differences because of their different national conditions. However, if we compare its plastic governance policies, we can still see the impact of the degree of development on its policy characteristics.

Most western developed countries will adopt the governance thinking of circular economy when dealing with plastic pollution, while some underdeveloped countries represented by African countries adopt more restrictions or prohibitions that seem to be rough.

Perhaps at this point, western developed countries may use more plastic life cycle perspective, but the restrictions on the upstream supply side still need to be redoubled.