"Bamboo replace Plastic", starting with disposable bamboo tableware!
With the increasingly severe problem of "environmental protection", as well as the national call for energy conservation and emission reduction, looking for plastic alternatives has become an important topic.
This is a question: " Have you ever wondered how many of the things in our lives would be brought to the environment if they could be replaced by bamboo?
Bamboo can be cut down every year and grow year after year. It is a sustainable species. It is widely distributed in more than 20 provinces in the country, and has huge resource reserves.
With the improvement of production technology and process, bamboo is not only limited to replace plastic products, but also can replace metal, cement and other traditional materials. For example, bamboo winding composite material, its main raw material is renewable and recyclable fast-growing plant bamboo. The breakthrough of bamboo winding composite material technology makes it possible to replace steel, cement, plastic and glass with bamboo products in many fields, thus producing very significant carbon reduction benefits.
It is understood that currently, about 150 million tons of bamboo can be harvested in my country every year, 40 million tons have been used, and 110 million tons of bamboo are still idle. If all these bamboos are used and processed into bamboo winding composite materials to replace steel bars and cement, 170 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions can be reduced every year, accounting for 1.7% of China's current total annual carbon emissions. Relevant studies show that the annual carbon storage capacity of 1 hectare of moso bamboo is 5.09 tons, which is 1.46 times that of fir and 1.33 times that of tropical rain forests.
At the same time, plastic disposable tableware is the most common plastic product that we come into contact with in our daily lives. With the development of the takeout industry, the use of disposable plastic products has also increased significantly. Some media reports said that "Takeout plastic bags have become more popular during the 15th Five-Year Plan" "The sky can cover a West Lake", "The take-out boxes thrown away in one day can pile up more than 330 Mount Everests"... If the above calculation method is followed, in 2020 the take-out waste has turned into "take-out plastic bags in less than three days" "Can cover a West Lake", "Takeaway boxes can pile up 770 Everests in one day
In addition, some media found through interviews, data sorting, calculations, etc. that the weight of plastic waste in takeout waste nationwide in 2020 was approximately 578,000 tons to 1.6 million tons. It will cost approximately 2.45 billion yuan to harmlessly dispose 1.6 million tons of plastic waste, and the cost will be borne by the taxes and fees paid by each of us.
It is well known that plastic products pollute the environment. According to statistics on China's urban domestic waste treatment methods in 2022, the current treatment methods of disposable lunch boxes are still 52% landfill and 45% incineration. Simple landfill treatment methods will lead to a large number of bacteria lurking in discarded plastic lunch boxes. The sulfur dioxide and dioxins released by incineration are more likely to cause respiratory infections and physical diseases in the human body, resulting in serious air pollution.
For this reason, the environmental pollution problems caused by plastic tableware have prompted the introduction of a series of policies from "plastic restriction" to "plastic ban" at home and abroad. At the same time, under the background of the global plastic ban, new products and new technologies are constantly emerging in the field of plant fiber lunch boxes, and their development in the new stage faces huge opportunities.
Disposable bamboo fiber tableware, as one of the categories of plant fiber lunch boxes, has unique advantages. For example, resource advantages: my country is the country with the largest bamboo forest area, the richest bamboo resources, and the most developed bamboo industrialization in the world; material advantages: bamboo has the characteristics of strong toughness and short cultivation cycle; technical advantages: bamboo fiber is natural The material advantages (good strength and toughness, large bulk-to-thickness ratio, moderate slenderness ratio) combined with simple pre-treatment methods such as sodium sulfite and steam explosion can prepare bamboo fiber lunch box raw materials with excellent performance.
It is understood that at present, disposable bamboo fiber tableware has a certain market base and industrial scale at home and abroad. In 2018, China's export trade volume of bamboo products accounted for 73.1% of the total global trade, of which bamboo tableware accounted for 42.38%. Due to the regional characteristics of bamboo resource distribution, most bamboo fiber lunch box processing companies are currently concentrated in provinces and cities such as Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Chongqing, Sichuan and Anhui. China has now developed into the world's largest country in the production and consumption of bamboo fiber lunch boxes. According to predictions, the market capacity of bamboo fiber lunch boxes will grow rapidly, reaching more than 5 billion units within 3 years.
In addition, disposable bamboo fiber tableware also has evaluation and standards in China. A summary of the relevant national standards, light industry standards and railway industry standards formulated for disposable tableware is shown in Table 1. Relevant units are formulating the forestry industry standard "Bamboo Fiber Molded Containers" (Table 2) based on the above-mentioned inspection indicators and prescribed grades for pulp lunch boxes, food contact paper, etc.
The most important thing is that discarded bamboo fiber lunch boxes can be completely degraded within 2 months if discarded in the soil. It can be seen that if we want to do "bamboo replacing plastic", starting from disposable bamboo tableware will have better market response, acceptance and feasibility.