Plastic recycling: New era, new paradigm

As the name suggests, the primary cycle is the application of recycled plastics is not lower than the original plastic, can be applied at the same level, not only from food to food, where the technical conditions allow, from where to go! "Bottle to bottle", "fiber to fiber", "electronic appliances to electronic appliances", "car to car", etc., all belong to the original ccle.

The primary cycle corresponds to the degradation cycle and the non-cycle, and most recycled plastics are the degradation cycle at present.

The meaning of the primary cycle

1.1 Basic link of pollution reduction and carbon reduction

Plastic primary cycle can extend the life cycle of plastics, reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions, and avoid the waste of resources.

Compared with the original plastic, the carbon emission of producing 1 kg of recycled plastic is only 1.4 kg, which can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 0.9 kg, and the carbon reduction ratio is 39%.

1.2 Important link to protect resource security

Oil resources are exhaustible and non-renewable, and their safe supply plays an important role in security. Especially when the international situation has undergone new major changes and the theme of peace and development is facing severe challenges, plastic primary recycling is one of the effective ways to ensure the security of resource supply.

Recycled plastics have become an important raw material for China's industrial production. According to CPRRA statistics and estimates, the total amount of waste plastic processing and utilization in China in 2020 will be 36.53 million tons.

1.3 The only way to build a beautiful China

The essence of the construction of a beautiful China is that man and nature are a community of life. The primary recycling of plastics seeks economic development in the protection of nature and promotes the coordination of economic development and ecological protection.

1.4 Basic approaches to the construction of China's ecological civilization system

The Opinions of the Party Central Committee and The State Council on Accelerating the Construction of Ecological Civilization regard green development, circular development and low-carbon development as the basic ways to build ecological civilization. Economic and social development must be built on the basis of efficient recycling of resources and strict protection of the ecological environment, in coordination with ecological progress, and form a spatial pattern, industrial structure and production mode that conserve resources and protect the environment.

Plastic primary cycle

1.5 Strategic measures to proactively respond to the "Convention to End Plastic Pollution"

On December 28, 2023, the UNEP-INC4 website published the revised Draft of the Convention to End Plastic Pollution, which further clarified the "ambition" to reduce or limit polymer production and increase the use of recycled plastics. The 2025 Convention is signed, and the new mechanism is coming soon. The development of primary plastic recycling is a strategic measure to proactively respond to the Convention.

1.6 Important content of high-quality development of the industry

The "14th Five-Year Plan" plastic pollution control action plan clearly encourages the use of waste plastics at the same level and with high added value. "Fifteen Five" is coming, observing that the next step of the governance program, whether it will be from "encourage" to further "mandatory use", especially in 2025 to end the plastic pollution Convention at the same time, the plan is introduced, when the policy-oriented driven, plastic primary cycle will make the industry development into the fast lane.

Some examples and international policies

2.1 Proposal on Vehicle Cycle Design and end-of-life Vehicle Management

In July 2023, the European Union issued a proposal on Vehicle Cycle Design and end-of-life vehicle Management, which has a very clear quantitative target for the primary cycle of plastics: at least 25% of the plastic used to make vehicles is post-consumer recycled plastic (PCR), and 25% of this must come from recycled end-of-life vehicles.

2.2 EU Sustainable and Circular Textiles Strategy

In order to promote the primary recycling of plastics, the EU also published the EU Sustainable and Circular Textiles Strategy in March 2022, which prohibits the physical recycling of plastic bottles into textile fibers.

2.3 Textile Enterprise: Puma

PUMA (PUMA) announced that from 2024, all Puma football club and league jerseys will be produced using RE:FIBRE technology (factory waste, defective products, used clothing through chemical recycling), thus replacing the existing PET bottle production of recycled fiber;

2.4 Automobile Company: Audi

A portion of the seat belt buckle casing of the Audi Q8 e-tron is made from recycled plastic produced by Lyander Basell, which is made from a variety of automotive plastic waste through chemical recycling.

2.5 Food and beverage Company: Coca-Cola

Since 2023, Coca-Cola has launched rPET beverage bottles in Malaysia, Singapore, Canada, India, Kenya, Taiwan, Indonesia and other places.

2.6 Global Commitment for a New Plastics economy

According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and the United Nations Environment Programme's Progress Report on Global Commitments to the New Plastics Economy 2023, signatories representing 20% of the global plastic packaging industry are increasing PCR content at a steady rate for the fifth consecutive year (from 10.0% in 2021 to 11.7% in 2022).

Photo: Ellen MacArthur Foundation

2.7 In North American rPET applications, bottle-to-bottle cycle accounts for 50%

In the United States, according to NAPCOR reports, the application of rPET bottle pouring in North America accounts for 50% of the end-market consumption. In 2022, the amount of PCR used in plastic bottles in the United States increased by 15% to 870 million pounds (about 395,000 tons).

2024, the first year of plastic primary cycle!

On December 19, 2023, a closed-door seminar on the primary recycling policy research of plastic packaging for food contact was held in Beijing: In order to synchronize with the world and ensure China's resource security, relevant requirements for the primary recycling of plastic packaging for food contact will be established and recycled plastics will be released for food contact policy.

In 2024, China will introduce policies related to the primary recycling of plastics, at which time, the recycled plastics industry will usher in a new world, we will wait and see.