Shanlian Chairman Cai Jianyong: This Is How Inorganic Degradable Film Tape Was Born!

Cai Jianyong, Chairman of Shanlian (Changxing) New Materials Co., Ltd.

A "seed" buried deep in the heart quietly begins to take root

During the Second Industrial Revolution, humanity developed plastics and began applying them to industrial engineering, daily necessities and other fields. Gradually, plastics permeated every aspect of production and life, bringing unprecedented convenience to human life. However, at the same time, the rampant use of plastics, especially single-use plastics, has brought irreversible environmental harm to the planet and to humanity.

According to scientists, 68 plastic substances are major sources of human cancer. The ocean has become a graveyard for human plastic waste, causing the death of large numbers of marine organisms. Discarded plastic waste does not rot or degrade after 100 years in landfill, and when incinerated it produces large amounts of toxic and harmful gases. These scenes are vivid and clear, and they fill Cai Jianyong, who works in the plastic packaging industry, with deep concern.

Mr. Cai shared that, having been immersed in the packaging industry for several years, he has a special attachment to the packaging cause and feels a heavy responsibility to reduce the impact on the environment by improving packaging materials and formats.

The "seed" of wanting to do something to ease the conflict between packaging convenience and environmental pollution quietly took root in Mr. Cai's heart. In 2008, by chance, Mr. Cai came across paper made from inorganic mineral powder. Struck by a sudden inspiration that ignited the spark of a long-hidden dream, he and his team resolutely embarked on a journey to develop new inorganic degradable packaging materials.

After long exploration, the innovation finally came into being

The development of new inorganic degradable materials was truly unprecedented, with virtually no reference materials or scientific papers on inorganic materials to be found, so they had to start from zero and feel their way forward. "The most critical problem was that, worldwide, there was no equipment suited to inorganic degradable material processes, so we had to start from scratch and develop our own production equipment to break through the constraints of the production process," Mr. Cai said.

The road of R&D was long, wading through countless failures, accumulating tens of thousands of parameters from those failures, sifting and summarizing them to find valuable ones, and then starting over. After ten years, the new inorganic degradable material was successfully polished and launched, and the scientific challenge that countries such as Europe, the US, Japan and South Korea had long found hard to crack was finally overcome in one stroke by the technical team led by Mr. Cai.

Shanlian owns full independent intellectual property rights for the new inorganic degradable material and holds the original technology for the product. So far it has applied to the National Patent Office for more than 60 invention patents, while also applying for international patents, and has filed invention patent applications for four major categories of equipment.

As one of the core products of the new inorganic degradable materials, inorganic degradable film tape has also passed testing by domestic and international institutions and obtained reports, such as the degradation report from SGS and the degradation test report from the Chemical Research Institute of the Ministry of Chemical Industry of China. An enterprise standard for "inorganic degradable sealing tape" has been established and published on the official website, an application for the Zhejiang Made standard has also been submitted, and planning is underway to apply for a national green product standard and to initiate the formulation of a national standard, ultimately entering the international standard. A brand-new industry for inorganic degradable film tape is about to open up.

Outstanding environmental advantages, with performance superior to ordinary tape

According to the introduction, 70% of the raw material for Shanlian's inorganic degradable film tape is inorganic mineral powder, and the other 30% consists of more than ten kinds of degradable additives. This tape has the notable advantages of being green, environmentally friendly and degradable,

In the production process it achieves the "three nos":

no water is needed, no chemical halogens are added, and no toxic or harmful gases are produced;

After use, it can be recycled and remade, can be landfilled and degraded, and produces no toxic or harmful gases when incinerated.

Compared with traditional plastic products, which will not rot even after 100 years in the soil and cause groundwater and soil pollution, this inorganic degradable film tape can degrade naturally in 10 months under sunlight.

In terms of price, compared with ordinary BOPP plastic film tape,

the inorganic degradable film tape costs 10%-20% more, but its performance already surpasses that of ordinary tape

. However, compared with kraft paper tape,

the inorganic degradable film tape is 1.5 to 3 times lower in price

(At present, countries such as Europe, the US, Japan and South Korea already use large quantities of kraft paper tape).

Favorable market response, with international markets steadily opening up

At present, Shanlian's inorganic degradable film tape has begun to be sold to the "four Tong and one Da" express enterprises (STO, YTO, ZTO, Best and Yunda), SF Express and related e-commerce enterprises for volume use, and has won unanimous praise.

A person in charge of a partner express enterprise candidly said: "Compared with traditional express packaging, inorganic degradable film tape costs slightly more, but its features of no pollution, degradability, recyclability and good performance will greatly ease the environmental pollution caused by express delivery waste. As an enterprise, we will actively shoulder our social responsibility and increase investment to promote the use of green packaging."

In addition to logistics, express delivery and e-commerce enterprises, Shanlian's products will next be promoted in different industries such as food and beverage, hygiene materials, pharmaceuticals, tobacco and alcohol, and retail

Mr. Cai introduced that, as of now, Shanlian has signed sales agency agreements with 38 countries worldwide, and representatives from nearly 100 more countries and regions will rapidly push forward the signing of agreements with Shanlian.

To meet rapidly growing customer demand for inorganic degradable film tape, Shanlian's production base is being built with focused effort. The Shanlian project involves a total investment of 1.007 billion yuan and covers a total area of 200 mu,

At present, the first phase covering 110 mu has been completed and put into production, with an annual output of 1 billion rolls of inorganic degradable film tape

, and after the phase II plant is fully put into production, the annual output of inorganic mineral powder film tape is estimated to reach 3.2 billion rolls, with estimated annual sales revenue of up to 10 billion yuan.

A small product with a big market, striving to turn the green packaging concept into reality

Do not underestimate this tape - it is a small product with a big market and big potential. The tape sales market is huge; carton sealing tape in particular is used by almost every industry and every household. All tape products, including carton sealing tape, masking tape, electrical tape and medical tape, represent a global sales market of over 1 trillion yuan each year. From 2015 to 2016, China's tape exports reached 100 billion yuan, and domestic sales were 80 billion yuan.

At present, there is no production competition for the same kind of new material anywhere in the world. Compared with traditional kraft paper tape, it has a relatively high competitive price advantage. According to incomplete statistics, more than 30 countries have already begun legislative procedures to ban the use of plastic tape before the end of 2020. China is also carrying out top-level design, establishing national standards and legislating to ban the use of single-use plastic products. This has laid a solid foundation for the rapid growth of the market share of inorganic degradable film tape.

Shanlian's new inorganic degradable foundational material has already been applied to five major categories of products:

The first major category is inorganic degradable film tape, which has already been put into production and sold;

The second major category is inorganic degradable film flexible packaging, mainly applied to the outer packaging of food and hygiene materials to replace plastic flexible packaging in traditional industries. It has already been provided to flexible packaging enterprises to test various parameters and process flows, and after the process is finally perfected, it will gradually replace plastic film

; the third major category is inorganic degradable corrugated packaging boxes; the fourth major category covers food fast-food boxes, cups and containers, referred to as the food packaging container category, which has passed the process requirements of various food safety tests and is currently in volume production at relevant injection molding plants; the fifth major category is single-use fast-moving consumer goods, such as knives, forks, spoons, combs, toothbrush handles and straws.

Next, Shanlian will continue to push forward, actively and rapidly bringing its new inorganic degradable series of packaging products to the world, striving to build the company into an international brand of inorganic degradable products, continuously advancing the replacement and renewal of traditional plastic and tape products, and doing its utmost to keep turning the concept of green packaging into reality.

——This article is reprinted from China Packaging Network (pack.cn). Original link: http://news.pack.cn/show-353069.html