Different kinds of disposable plastic products have been widely used in residents’ lives, especially with the development of new industry such as e-commerce, express delivery and take- out, the consumption of plastic lunch boxes and plastic packaging has risen rapidly. Without proper regulation and control of plastic management, these plastic have been discard randomly, result in great environment risk and huge White Pollution.
One. What is Plastic ?
Plastic is a kind of polymer organic compound, which is a general term for thermoplastic molding materials such as filling, plasticizing and coloring. It belongs to a class of high molecular organic polymer families.
Two. Plastic Classification
According to the characteristics of the plastic after molding, it can be divided into thermoplastic and thermosetting plastic materials.
Thermoplastic is a chain linear molecular structure that softens after being heated and can repeatedly replicate products. The thermosetting plastic has a network structure and is permanently deformed after being processed by heat, and cannot be repeatedly processed and replicated.
Three. Common Plastic in Daily Life
Normally, plastic materials in our life are usually PE, PP ,PS, PVC and PET.
Polyethylene plastics (PE, including HDPE and LDPE) are often used as packaging materials; polypropylene plastics (PP) are often used as packaging materials and turnover boxes; polystyrene plastics (PS) are often used as foam liners and fast food lunch boxes; Vinyl plastic (PVC) is often used as a toy item, container, etc.; polyester plastic (PET) is commonly used to make beverage bottles.
Four. Waste Plastic Disposal
There are four methods for waste plastic disposal; incineration, landfill, recycling and abandon in natural environment. Plastic is artificial substance that is hard to decompose. Plastic decompose very slowly under natural conditions, it will takes about 200 to 400 years to degrade, which will reduce the ability of the landfill to dispose of the garbage. Once waste plastic been burned, not only producing a lot of black smoke, but also dioxin yield from the burning process.
If they are abandoned to the natural environment, in addition to causing visual pollution to people, there are many potential hazards to the environment: for example, affecting agricultural development. The degradation of plastic products currently used in China usually takes 200 years. The long-term residual waste plastic film and plastic bags in the farmland are accumulated in the soil, which will affect the absorption of water and nutrients by crops and inhibit the production of crops’ development, result in the reduction of crop yields, and the soil environment deteriorates. Meanwhile, these waste plastic also poses a threat to animal survival, some animal were killed because they swallowed abandoned waste plastic products on land or in water.
Although there are many disadvantage of plastic waste, plastics can be converted into new products through recycling and reuse, which turns waste into useful resources. This is the most ideal disposal method for waste plastics.
In recent years, the recycling technology of waste plastics has been continuously developed. Among them, the most eye-catching one is the continuous pyrolysis technology of waste plastics. This technology can convert waste plastics such as PP, PE, PS, and film plastic into fuel oil, combustible gas, solid fuel and other products in a continuous process and factory production mode. These pyrolysis products have high added value and economic value, without secondary pollution in the treatment process, and it’s safe and environmentally friendly. It truly realized harmless, wasteful treatment and resource utilization in waste plastic disposal process.
Industrial Continuous Low Temperature Waste Plastic Pyrolysis Production Line and its technology made by world Pyrolysis leading company Niutech Environment Technology Corporation have won China National Science & Technology Progress Award.
Plastics are inseparable from our daily lives, and the amount of waste plastics is also increasing. Promoting the application of advanced waste plastics processing technology and greatly improving the recycling rate is an effective means to solve the “white pollution” of waste plastics. At the same time, it is a promotion of green circular economy, also one strong driving force to build beautiful China.