Action Plan for Plastic Pollution Control During the 14th Five-Year Plan Period Unveiled

Are single-use plastic products being used more and more? Are the plastic layers on express parcels multiplying? Is plastic waste hard to collect? These long-standing problems will become the focus of plastic pollution control during the 14th Five-Year Plan period.

Recently, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Ecology and Environment jointly issued the "Action Plan for Plastic Pollution Control during the 14th Five-Year Plan Period," stressing the need to carry out whole-chain governance of plastic pollution and to build "dams" one after another to prevent plastic from leaking into the environment.

As an important basic material, plastic has been widely used in every aspect of the economy and society, bringing much convenience to people's production and life while also posing enormous environmental challenges. Plastic itself is not a pollutant; the essence of plastic pollution is that plastic waste leaks into soil, water bodies and other natural environments and is hard to degrade, bringing environmental harm such as visual pollution, soil damage and microplastics. Plastic pollution control is a global problem and has risen in recent years to become a global focus of discussion.

During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, focusing on plastic pollution control, the Action Plan deploys three main tasks: first, actively promoting reduction at the source of plastic production and use, including actively promoting green design of plastic products, continuously advancing reduction in the use of single-use plastic products, and scientifically and prudently promoting plastic substitute products; second, accelerating standardized recycling, utilization and disposal of plastic waste, including strengthening standardized collection and removal of plastic waste, establishing and improving collection, transport and disposal systems for rural plastic waste, increasing the recycling and utilization of plastic waste, and raising the level of harmless disposal of plastic waste; third, vigorously carrying out the cleanup and rectification of plastic waste in key areas, with targeted tasks for cleaning up plastic waste in rivers, lakes and seas, tourist attractions and rural areas.

At present, single-use plastic products are widely used, of low value and hard to collect, which is the difficulty and pain point of plastic pollution control. To this end, the Action Plan makes clear that their production and use will be reduced at the source.

In the product design and production links, actively promote green design of plastic products. Prohibit the production of certain products that harm the environment and human health, such as ultra-thin plastic shopping bags less than 0.025 mm thick, polyethylene agricultural mulch film less than 0.01 mm thick, and daily chemical products containing plastic microbeads. Reduce excessive packaging of commodities, improve the degree of material uniformity and the products' ease of circulation and recycling, and facilitate the recycling and reuse of plastic products after use.

In the plastic circulation and consumption links, promote reduction in the use of non-degradable plastic shopping bags, single-use plastic tableware, single-use plastic straws and single-use plastic items in hotels in traditional commercial service fields such as commodity retail, catering and accommodation. Urge and guide platform enterprises in e-commerce and food delivery and express delivery enterprises to fulfil their primary responsibilities and formulate platform rules for reducing single-use plastic products. Substantially reduce secondary packaging of e-commerce goods in the delivery process, and raise the level of standardization, greenness and circularity of express packaging.

The Action Plan also gives a timetable for plastic pollution control: by 2025, the plastic pollution control mechanism will operate more effectively, the responsibilities of localities, departments and enterprises will be effectively implemented, whole-chain governance of plastic product production, circulation, consumption, recycling and end-of-life disposal will achieve more notable results, and white pollution will be effectively curbed.

Among this, on source reduction, irrational use of single-use plastic products in key areas such as commodity retail, e-commerce, food delivery, express delivery and accommodation will be substantially reduced, e-commerce express parcels will basically achieve no more secondary packaging, and the scale of application of recyclable express packaging will reach 10 million units.

On recycling and disposal, cities at prefecture level and above will, in light of local conditions, basically establish systems for the classified placement, collection, transport and treatment of domestic waste, and the efficiency of plastic waste collection and transfer will be greatly improved; the national incineration capacity for urban domestic waste will reach about 800,000 tonnes/day, and the amount of plastic waste directly landfilled will be greatly reduced; the recovery rate of agricultural film will reach 85%, and the national residue of mulch film will achieve zero growth.

On waste cleanup, the historical legacy of open plastic waste in key water areas, key tourist attractions and rural areas will basically be cleared, and the leakage of plastic waste into the natural environment will be effectively controlled.

——This article is reprinted from China Packaging Network (pack.cn). Original link: http://news.pack.cn/show-378297.html