On August 3, the Chilean government promulgated the "Plastics Prohibition Law", and all supermarkets and shops across the country will not be allowed to provide plastic bags to shoppers. So, what to replace?
A water-soluble shopping bag developed by a Chinese company using polyvinyl alcohol as the main raw material is expected to become a solution after the “plastic banâ€.
The shopping bag dissolves in water
"Thanks to the materials and technology of the Chinese company, we will be able to produce polyvinyl alcohol water-soluble bags in Chile in the future to provide solutions for Chile's" plastic ban. "In the capital of Santiago, Chile, Roberto Astete, the general manager of SolBag To Xinhua News Agency reporter.
He picked up a shopping bag that looked exactly like an ordinary plastic bag, put it in a pot of water and stirred it with a spoon. The shopping bag dissolves in water and turns into a milky white liquid.
This shopping bag is harmless to the human body. Its main raw material, polyvinyl alcohol, is a water-soluble biodegradable material, and the rest of the added materials are all food grade.
The raw material of ordinary plastic bags is polyethylene, the molecular structure is very stable, it is extremely difficult to degrade in the environment, and the recycling is difficult, which is obvious to the global environmental hazards.
"An ordinary plastic bag takes 400 years to degrade. And a polyvinyl alcohol water-soluble bag, degradation takes only 5 minutes!" Astete said.
"If you throw a water-soluble polyvinyl alcohol bag into the sea, it will quickly dissolve and disappear in the seawater, and eventually it can be completely degraded into carbon dioxide and water by microorganisms, which will not cause 'white pollution'." Guangdong Guangdong, China, which developed this material Li Lingyu, general manager of New Materials Co., Ltd. said.
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Shopping bags are easy to handle, just throw them into the washing machine. Even if the child puts the bag on his head, he will not suffocate, and his tongue will break when he licks it.
Raw materials made in China
At present, PVA water-soluble bags have not been put into production in Chile. The bags demonstrated by Astete are all produced in Qingyuan City, Guangdong Province.
"The raw materials for making polyvinyl alcohol water-soluble shopping bags are developed in China. This is one of the projects we have developed in cooperation with South China University of Technology. Now we are working with Chilean companies to use them for making shopping bags. We are responsible for producing raw materials. To provide technical support, the Chilean company is responsible for the marketing and sales of products. In the future, the raw materials of shopping bags will continue to use Qingyuan, Guangdong as the main production base, and the shopping bags will be made in Chile or other places and sold to the whole world.
Astete has been doing business in China for more than ten years, and has been searching for alternative materials suppliers for plastic bags around the world for more than four years. In 2015, a Chinese equipment supplier introduced Astec and Juyi. The water-soluble raw materials of polyvinyl alcohol just meet the demand, and the two parties "just hit it."
At present, these two companies have jointly submitted invention patents and utility model patent applications to the State Intellectual Property Office of China, of which utility model patents have been approved. They also filed international patent applications.
Not afraid of rainy days
In countries where it often rains, is it bad to come out of the supermarket with this shopping bag?
"No! We can design products with different water-soluble temperatures, ranging from about 25 degrees Celsius to 75 degrees Celsius to over 90 degrees Celsius. In countries where it rains a lot, you can use products that dissolve in hot water." . Aste also showed reporters two PVA products, one with the same appearance as ordinary plastic bags, soluble in water at room temperature, used to replace plastic bags; the other with the same appearance as non-woven bags, more than Soluble at 90 degrees Celsius, it is used to replace the non-woven bags on the market.
Chile ’s “Plastics Prohibition Law†stipulates that from February 3, 2019, all large supermarkets and shopping malls shall no longer provide free or chargeable plastic bags to shoppers; from August 3, 2020, all small, medium and micro businesses shall no longer Provide plastic bags to shoppers. Prior to this, merchants could only provide up to 2 plastic bags to each customer. Violators will be fined.
The definition of "plastic ban" for plastic bags clearly stipulates that it refers to bags made of petroleum-derived polymers. Therefore, Chile not only bans ordinary plastic bags, but also bans so-called "environmentally friendly bags" made of petrochemical alternative materials.
"Polyvinyl alcohol does not belong to the category of plastics, not derived from petroleum, but from calcium carbonate or natural gas. Calcium carbonate is a naturally occurring mineral." Li Lingyu emphasized.
Expect mass production to reduce costs
Statistics from the United Nations Environment Program show that since the 1950s, more than 8.3 billion tons of plastics have been produced globally. At present, 5 trillion plastic bags are used worldwide every year, and 8 million tons of plastic waste flows into the ocean, and some even cause the death of marine life. According to this trend, the amount of plastic waste in the ocean will exceed the number of marine fish by the year 5050. Since fish eaten by humans have swallowed plastic, humans are also indirectly eating "microplastics".
"If PVA water-soluble bags are three or four times more expensive than ordinary plastic bags, I believe that in countries where plastics are limited, people will still not use them. Therefore, mass production and cost reduction will be the same as ordinary plastic bags. The price is the real solution. "Astete said.
"Since 2015, we have been optimizing formulations and reducing costs. If PVA water-soluble bags are mass-produced like ordinary plastic bags, we can reach prices close to ordinary plastic bags." Li Lingyu said.
Astete plans to set up a plant in Chile and begin mass production at the end of this year for global sales.
"There are too many plastic wastes in the ocean today. Easter Island, Chile is located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean (2.270, -0.03, -1.30%). We don't throw any litter. There are still plastic waste from all directions." Valparaiso, Chile Tarita Alarcon, governor of the Easter Island region, told reporters from Xinhua News Agency.
"I sincerely hope that plastic bags will be banned all over the world!" Easter Island resident Lynn Lapp prayed. Author: Wang Pei Qi party
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