From our previous articles, the research shows that many degradable plastic bags are difficult to disappear completely in nature, because the complete degradation of degradable plastics requires various external conditions (temperature, oxygen, bacterial environment and a certain time). ).
Many studies show that because people think that the plastic advertised as "degradable" is easy to be degraded, it will increase the behavior of random disposal, which will lead to the increase of garbage.
So, how can consumers judge whether a product is really a degradable plastic bag? How do you know how to properly dispose of discarded degradable plastic bags?
The answer is that plastic products that claim to be "degradable" have the responsibility to explain themselves clearly!
Let's take a look at degradable plastic products, and what labels should there be to explain their degradation performance.
Specification and identification of degradable plastic products
According to the Definition, Classification, Labeling and Degradability Requirements of Degradable Plastics (GB/T 20 197-2006) issued by the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine and the National Standardization Administration in 2006, a qualified label of degradable plastics should include standard number, degradation route and product material.
According to this standard, the standardized marks of degradable plastics should be as follows:
Let's make another error demonstration for comparison:
PS: Although degradable plastics can be divided into biodegradable plastics, compostable plastics, thermal/oxidative degradable plastics and photodegradable plastics, the degradation effects of the latter two are still controversial (see why even Nestle and Pepsi agree to ban such degradable plastics? ), so the degradation methods of degradable plastics discussed below are biodegradable or compostable.
According to the current national standard GB/T16716.7-2012 "Packaging and packaging waste Part 7: Biodegradation and Composting", it can be known that the method to test the biodegradability of packaging is composting or water-soluble culture solution in the laboratory. It can be seen that composting is the main way to treat biodegradable plastics.
"Therefore, when you want to discard a biodegradable plastic product or compostable plastic product, you should try to put it in the passage where it can be sent to compost."
In addition to the marking methods used in China, international standard numbers or certification marks issued by authoritative certification bodies also have official effect. Internationally, if a product is labeled as biodegradable plastic, it should meet recognized compostable standards, such as international standard ISO1860617088, European standard EN 13432/ 14995 and American standard ASTM6400/6868.
The European Bioplastics Association mentioned that accountability is the key in its published Bioplastics Communication Guide:
According to the different uses of products, biodegradable plastics suitable for different environments can be designed (that is, different biodegradable plastic products can have different degradation conditions). Therefore, compared with compostable plastic products with clear disposal methods, when a product claims to be biodegradable, it should state what degradation standards (certification instructions and labels) it meets, the time when it can be completely degraded, and the places/conditions that ensure it to complete the biodegradation process.
Only in this way can consumers know how to correctly handle all kinds of biodegradable plastic products and avoid consumers from classifying biodegradable plastics into wrong categories.
Certification bodies in different countries will determine biodegradable/compostable characteristics according to different test standards. The following are common signs in the world:
Seedling sign
Miao mark is the certification mark of composting performance of products, which has passed the Belgian certification body T? V DINCERTCO, an Austrian, Belgian and German certification body, is widely recognized in Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Britain and other regions.
Good compost
Belgian certification body t? V Austria Belgium is the only organization that carries out OK composting certification, and the logo is often used in France, Italy, Belgium and other regions. Industrial composting conditions require a certain temperature (usually 50-60 degrees Celsius), a certain humidity, a certain flora and a certain oxygen consumption. These conditions can't be achieved in the general natural environment.
In addition to the industrial compost mark, OKCompost also proves that domestic compost is biodegradable in the soil environment.
Dinge pruft
The DIN-Geprüft logo is certified by DIN CERTCO, a German institution with more than 40 years of experience. In addition to composting performance, the mark can also prove the bio-based content of bio-based plastics. Bio-based plastics can reduce the use of fossil fuels, thus reducing carbon emissions.
There are other certification marks in other countries and regions. You can basically confirm that the material is biodegradable/compostable by looking at the marks and standard numbers shown below.
In recent years, the serious problem of express delivery and take-away packaging waste caused by the rapid development of online shopping has attracted much attention, and major domestic e-commerce platforms have also launched degradable plastic bags as environmental protection solutions.
Alibaba released the "Green Logistics 2020 Plan" in May 20 18, indicating that by 2020, Tmall Direct will upgrade all express bags to environmental protection bags [1]; 20 19 jingdong logistics released the report card of the second anniversary of "Liu Qing plan", saying that 1 100 million biodegradable packaging bags were released [2]. The takeaway giant is hungry. In the "Blue Planet Project" released on 20 17, it is also indicated that a new generation of environmentally-friendly degradable plastic bags will be put into use [3].
Then, does the degradable plastic bag of e-commerce Daxie have the correct degradation label?
PS: Because my colleagues and I have hardly accepted the service of using degradable packaging in the usual online shopping process, we have learned about the situation of degradable packaging through the consultation of official media and related suppliers of these e-commerce platforms.
Alibaba rookie
As you can see from the official website homepage of Rookie Alliance, there are mainly two kinds of environmental protection express bags. One is a bio-based courier bag, which takes grains, beans, lignocellulose, straw and polyethylene as main raw materials. Although bio-based plastics have the word "bio", not all of them are biodegradable (see wake up, degradable plastics are not so magical).
The advantage of using bio-based plastics is that it can reduce the use of fossil fuels in the production process, thus reducing carbon emissions [4]. In addition, the polyethylene plastic contained in this bio-based plastic pushed by the rookie is non-degradable. Like traditional plastics, it will bring pollution problems after entering the environment.
The second type is biodegradable courier bag, which is PBAT and PLA made of plant starch, both of which are common biodegradable materials.
We noticed in Weibo, the official cover of the peep show that the rookie and the cover news jointly launched a fully biodegradable environmental protection bag. As you can see from the video, this environmental protection bag has a logo of green seedlings on it, and it is accompanied by a text stating that the product has passed the certification of DIN CERTCO, an international certification body.
However, we found that Wuhan Huali Biological Co., Ltd., a supplier of degradable green packaging materials that signed cooperation with Cainiao.com, did not show any information about express packaging products sold on Taobao. It can be seen that there is no uniform specification for degradable labels in this product.
JD.com
In 20 17, JD.COM and World Environment Day released the "Green Flow Plan" on the official WeChat account, and set the goal of using more than 50% biodegradable materials in plastic packaging in 2020. JD.COM Commonweal Micro Signal can see the appearance of its fully degradable packaging bag in the push of 20 16.
From the picture, there is no sign of degradation on the bag. According to JD.COM Public Welfare [7], this bag "uses 100% degradable particles, which can be decomposed into carbon dioxide and water within 3 months under composting conditions, and has no pollution to the environment." However, if there are no relevant labels and instructions, how can consumers know that they need to be disposed of in a composting environment?
But we saw the show of fresh buyers in JD.COM in Weibo, and found the old logo of OK compost in the upper right corner of fresh plastic bags in JD.COM, which was organized by Belgian organization Vin? Otte certification.
Ele.me
Hungry? In the "Blue Planet Plan" released on 20 17, it is indicated that the environmentally-friendly degradable plastic bags will be promoted nationwide one after another. We can clearly see that the information such as standard number, material and degradation mode is not marked in the degradable plastic bag used when we are hungry.
Although there is a "recycling" sign at the bottom of the plastic bag, this sign does not mean that the product has passed the certification. In fact, this ambiguous logo may lead consumers to mistakenly think that this logo means "degradable" or "environmental protection".
As mentioned in the Bioplastics Dissemination Guide, responsibility is the key.
"It is misleading to say that something is biodegradable without specific degradation standards."
"Degradable" should not only be used as advertising. As a business that wants to promote this relatively environmentally friendly product, it is the responsibility to let consumers know how to deal with degradable products, otherwise the result will only be "not environmentally friendly" under the banner of "environmental protection". When using degradable products, consumers should also learn to recognize common certification marks and improve their environmental protection knowledge.
Of course, whether disposable plastic products are degradable or not, not using them or using them less is the most environmentally friendly way.
Citation material
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Data reference
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