China has banned the import of foreign waste since 2018. At the beginning of this year, it announced a total ban on the import of waste plastics. Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and other countries have also implemented waste import restrictions. The shopkeeper" raised the challenge. Japan, whose average daily plastic emissions per person is second only to that of the United States, is caught in the dilemma of recycling. Japan's efforts to break through the siege has made the Chinese-based resource recycling companies increasingly stronger.
"3R" is difficult to achieve in the short term
From the perspective of history and current situation, Japan divides the development of its own waste management system into five stages: the first stage is from the second half of the 19th century to the first half of the 20th century, and the main topic is to improve public health through waste disposal; the second stage is 20 During the period of rapid economic growth in the 1960s and 1970s, the main topic was to deal with a large amount of industrial waste brought by development and to protect the environment; the third stage was in the 1980s, and the main topic was to promote the improvement of waste treatment facilities and handle waste Protect the environment while protecting the environment; the fourth stage is the 1990s, the main topic is to reduce waste output, build a recycling system and correctly handle different types and properties of waste products; 2000 to present is the fifth stage, the main topic is Through the promotion of "3R" (Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle), we will realize a recycling-oriented society, and strengthen countermeasures against industrial waste disposal and illegal waste disposal.
However, Japan is still a major waste discharge country such as plastics. On March 26, 2019, Japan’s Ministry of the Environment released data showing that in 2017, Japan’s total waste discharge was 42.89 million tons, which is equivalent to 115 Tokyo Dome stadiums. According to Japan's "Tokyo Shimbun" report, the United Nations Environmental Program report released in June 2018 pointed out that Japanese citizens emit 32 kilograms of plastic container waste per person per year, ranking second in the world after the United States.
The Nikkei reported that in 2014, Japan exported 950,000 tons of plastic waste to China. After China issued the "Implementation Plan for Prohibiting the Entry of Foreign Waste and Promoting the Reform of the Solid Waste Import Management System", the plastic waste exported from Japan to China dropped to 50,000 tons in 2018. In this regard, Japan must either look for new export destinations, or adopt policies to reduce emissions, or use innovative technology to recycle. And Southeast Asian countries have successively expressed that they will send the garbage they have received back to the exporting country, making Japan's plastic waste disposal problem even worse. Professor Hideshige Takada of Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology stated that waste incineration to energy conversion is not good for the advancement of global greenhouse effect measures, and it is not realistic to reduce waste significantly. Obviously, the disposal of plastic waste requires the promotion of "3R" to realize a recycling-oriented society, but this cannot be achieved overnight.
Chinese companies are rising
Today, more and more Chinese companies are going overseas and entering the local recycling industry. According to the "Nihon Keizai Shimbun", about 30 Chinese-based resource recycling companies established industry associations in Japan at the end of 2019, with the purpose of realizing information exchange, industry exchanges and resource sharing.
These Chinese-based resource recycling companies use waste plastic resources that cannot be exported by Japan to decompose them on the spot to make recycled resins and put them on the market, which are widely used in the packaging of food and daily necessities. Take a Chinese company based in Ibaraki as an example. Before China's foreign garbage ban, the company mainly relied on the business model of exporting Japanese plastic waste to China for decomposition and reproduction. After the promulgation of the ban, the company made a timely commercial transformation. In the two years from 2018 to 2019, it invested 700 million yen to establish two waste treatment plants in Japan, one of which is introducing waste plastic washing and crushing equipment. According to the "Nihon Keizai Shimbun" report, a waste plastic processing company, also located in Ibaraki, under the Taiwan Far East Group, is working with Japanese convenience stores to recycle waste plastic bottles. At the same time, the company is also building additional factories and plans to use ten years to increase the production capacity of recycled resin to 1.5 times the current level, which is 300,000 tons.
The support of the Japanese government also deserves the attention of Chinese companies. According to the Japanese "Environmental Economics" magazine, Japan's Ministry of the Environment has set up a special support fund to coordinate with various localities to provide assistance for the development and transformation of local resource recovery companies. In the past 2019, the newly increased budget in this area alone exceeded 3.5 billion yen. In the second supplementary budget for 2020, the Japanese government will add 6 billion yen. These policy dividends can also be enjoyed by Japanese and Chinese companies. In addition, it is easier to attract the attention of Chinese domestic capital and the cautious attitude of local Japanese companies are all good for Chinese companies.
Reducing usage is a big trend
At the same time, Chinese companies should also realize that although resource recycling is currently a major economic growth point, Japan has realized that only processing is not enough. It needs to fundamentally reduce the use of plastics, and research and development is more environmentally friendly and more economical. Healthy new materials.
The Japanese government decided last year to charge for disposable plastic bags nationwide starting this summer. At present, some large supermarket chains have already implemented plastic bag fees. The Japanese media pointed out that as long as there is the phrase "we don't need plastic bags", it will be a good start to break the vicious circle of mass consumption and discarding plastic bags.
In the past year or two, the catering and retail industries in Japan have also taken actions. For example, major convenience stores have changed iced coffee containers from plastic products to paper products, such as using plant-based "biodegradable plastic" straws. Degraded in nature through the action of microorganisms. Kao is also trying to reduce the amount of plastic used, including reducing the thickness of shampoo and other containers and reducing the size of bottle caps. Suntory Holdings has taken the lead in establishing a “bottle-to-bottle” recycling mechanism among beverage companies to produce 100% recycled plastic bottles. In general, recycled plastic bottles are reprocessed, and the proportion of recycled plastic bottles is only Is 10%. The Ministry of the Environment of Japan is also promoting the development and utilization of biomaterials and paper and other plastic substitute materials using plants as raw materials. Before 2030, it is planned to increase the use of biological materials from 70,000 tons in 2013 to 2 million tons.
In this regard, Chinese resource recycling companies should be aware that Japanese society has always prioritized technological innovation and has never stopped making efforts and explorations in this area. Therefore, we cannot just focus on the immediate dividends. Recyclable plastic resources are being reduced and replaced day by day. Part of our financial resources should be used for research and development to prevent ourselves from becoming "disposables."
