At 1: 00 pm on September 1, there were still food delivery staff wearing various overalls in the stairwell of Jinlong Building "flying" in the corridor. A delivery man took six takeaways in one hand and waited by the elevator. He told reporters that his site delivered about 800 takeaways a day on average, and if it was raining and other bad weather, the delivery volume exceeded 1,000.
Correspondingly-a large number of fast food boxes are thrown into the garbage every day. The reporter saw in the unsealed garbage bin that the takeaway boxes were scattered and piled up, and some had more than half a bowl of soup left. "On weekdays, an average of 17 or 8 cars of garbage are collected a day, and each car is about 30 bags of takeaway garbage."
According to the statistics of Ai Media Consulting, a third-party research institution, 256 million takeaways were produced every day in 2016, including at least 256 million lunch boxes and plastic bags, which will take at least 470 years to degrade after use. Besides incineration, according to statistics, about 8 million tons of plastics are dumped into the sea every year.
"Degradable" lunch boxes will also pollute the environment.
"1000 in 55 yuan, wholesale degradable lunch boxes." "Biodegradable plastics are non-toxic and harmless." In lunch box wholesale markets and online stores, such word descriptions can be seen everywhere.
On Taobao, the reporter saw some disposable foamed lunch boxes with the words "degradation" clearly written on them. A lunch box supplier who settled in Tmall told reporters that their sales volume is calculated by trucks, and they sell an average of 3,000 trucks a year, with 200 boxes in each car and 300 sets in each box, which can sell 180 million sets a year.
Because they are "degradable", most people think that these plastics can eventually be degraded in the environment, which is green and harmless, and there is little psychological burden when they are discarded. But in fact? Experts say that biodegradable plastics will not degrade in the natural environment, but will cause lasting pollution to the environment, especially the marine environment. Therefore, the widespread use of products labeled as "biodegradable" will not significantly reduce the amount of garbage entering the ocean, or reduce the physical and chemical risks brought by plastics to the marine environment.
"Many things called biodegradable plastics do meet the standards set by some international institutions, but this only means that they can degrade at certain high temperatures." Han Shuo, a master of materials science at Zhengzhou University and editor of Materials+WeChat in WeChat official account, said. The most commonly used plastics, such as polyethylene, polypropylene and polyvinyl chloride, are not biodegradable in the ocean. It is almost impossible to achieve the specific conditions required for the degradation of some biodegradable polymers in the marine environment. For example, these polymers need to be treated at a high temperature above 50℃ for a long time before they decompose in industrial compost. There are a few very special plastics that do miraculously degrade, such as oxygen-degradable plastics, but these plastics have few uses and are more expensive.
In particular, Han Shuo pointed out that some surveys found that the decomposition of oxygen-degradable plastics in the marine environment is quite slow, which may take as long as five years. Moreover, the broken oxygen-degraded plastics continue to pose a threat to the marine ecosystem, and the resulting microplastics particles will be absorbed by marine organisms, resulting in the transport of harmful microorganisms, pathogens and algae.
In response to the quality monitoring of lunch boxes, the reporter learned that there is no standard for the specific ingredients of takeaway lunch boxes at present, and the personnel of relevant departments said that it is "non-toxic and harmless, as long as it meets food safety standards".
Hungry? The customer service staff of the takeaway platform told the reporter that the packaging of the takeaway platform is currently the responsibility of the merchants themselves, and the platform has no special requirements for the material and quality of the lunch boxes of the settled merchants. "Lunch boxes are sold by merchants to customers, and they are all charged and provided by the merchants themselves."
A Meituan takeaway rider said that the platform has no requirements for the environmental protection of lunch boxes, but "it must not contain harmful substances". For packaging, the platform requires that there should be no leakage, nor can it directly contain food in plastic bags.
"Recyclable" lunch boxes are mostly reduced to domestic garbage.
At present, there are mainly four kinds of take-away lunch boxes on the market, namely PS (polystyrene) packaging boxes, PP (polypropylene) packaging boxes, paper packaging boxes and degradable lunch boxes made of natural straw pulp or corn starch.
The reporter visited more than 10 merchants in the city and found that all the lunch boxes used by take-away merchants were purchased by online and wholesalers, and the material was mainly PP5 (polypropylene). The lunch box provided by a braised chicken rice merchant shows that the service temperature is "20℃-100℃", and the words "PP5", "QS" and "microwave oven permission" are also marked on it, and some merchants’ lunch boxes are also marked with the triangle symbol of "recyclable".
The owner of a Lamian Noodles in Lanzhou said that he didn’t know whether the lunch box was environmentally friendly, but he could guarantee that it was non-toxic and harmless. "This kind of lunch box is basically used for take-out in the market now, but to be on the safe side, we still remind customers to use it once and do not heat it." According to the boss, lunch boxes are purchased from the wholesale market, the price is one in 0.5 yuan, and the daily usage is about 50.
On take-away platforms such as Hungry, Meituan, etc., consumers will display the cost of lunch boxes when ordering food. Generally, according to the ordering quantity and usage, a lunch box is 1 yuan.
It is understood that all qualified PP5 lunch boxes have "QS" and number on them, which is equivalent to the product ID card and is also issued by the AQSIQ. This kind of product has undergone strict quality audit, that is, its raw materials, production environment and production technology, including the health requirements of personnel, are strictly regulated.
Marked with a triangle symbol, indicating that this material can be recycled. However, the reporter interviewed relevant departments and learned that at present, the recycling amount of plastic products in take-away garbage is extremely low, and most of the take-away garbage is incinerated. Why do lunch boxes marked recyclable end up as domestic garbage disposal?
Sheng Min, Secretary-General of China Renewable Resources Recycling Association Recycling Plastics Branch, said that these materials themselves do have recycling value, but the recycling price is not high. Pure polypropylene (PP) transparent lunch box, which is currently used as the mainstream lunch box, is one of the higher quality plastic materials, and the purchase price is only two or three yuan per kilogram. Moreover, after being used as take-away tableware, it is basically impossible to enter the recycling chain.
"From the recycling situation, no matter whether it is a scavenger or a recycling enterprise, he usually only chooses relatively simple types such as coke bottles at the front end. Such a dirty lunch box containing oil stains cannot be recycled." Han Shuo said that most of the wastes did not enter the recycling channel for reuse, but were directly incinerated. If some lunch boxes cut corners in order to simplify the process in the production stage, it will cause more pollution to the incineration treatment, so that the degradable materials themselves are actually "non-degradable".
It is too expensive to separate food from plastic tableware.
In the interview, the reporter also found that almost no one separated the remaining food in the box from disposable plastic tableware. Many discarded plastic lunch boxes contain leftover food.
Should waste food in takeaway garbage be separated from disposable plastic products? The staff of relevant departments said that the cost of secondary sorting and cleaning is high, and the value of recycling plastic products is limited. Therefore, most of them will not be sorted twice.
This statement was recognized by Fang Peng, Ph.D. in Materials Science of Northwestern Polytechnical University and a partner of Beijing Fanrui Technology Co., Ltd. He explained that once food is mixed with disposable plastic products, the cost of sorting is too high. Judging from the current situation, most of these disposable plastic tableware can not be recycled after separation.
At present, paper lunch boxes are the most environmentally friendly. In developed countries, paper tableware is often used for takeout. There are also some foreign fast food and baking businesses in China who choose paper take-away packaging.
Fang Peng said that the raw materials of paper tableware are mostly wood pulp, and then they are pressed and shaped by stamping tools, and then chemical additives are coated on the surface to prevent water seepage. At the same time, paper tableware is also harmless. In some high-end takeaway shops, they usually use this kind of tableware to package food, which looks exquisite. "But the disadvantages of paper tableware are also obvious. First, the price is high, and second, it is impossible to package soup."
There is also a real degradable tableware, which is mainly made of plastic, but with photosensitizer or starch added. Under the action of microbial enzymes in the natural environment, this tableware will be decomposed into carbon dioxide and water, which will not cause harmful effects on the environment. "The disadvantage is also the high price. If there is no special requirement, the merchants will not take the initiative to use it." Fang Peng said.
So how much pressure will the plastic lunch boxes and packaging entering the garbage disposal system bring to the environment? Fang Peng introduced that for plastic waste, incineration and landfill are still two mainstream ways.
It is incumbent on take-away enterprises to fulfill their environmental responsibility.
According to the information released by official website, the daily order volume of Meituan is 12 million, with a cumulative user of 200 million. According to the China takeaway big data released by NGO Sushe citing Hungry, the market size of China has reached 600 million. In 2016, the frequency of online take-away users’ consumption was as high as 63.3%. According to the statistics of this non-profit organization, at least 400 million takeaways "fly in the streets of China" every week, resulting in at least 400 million disposable packaging boxes and 400 million plastic bags, and 400 million disposable tableware discarded.
A lunch box manufacturer said that although the lunch boxes they produced were food grade, the state did not put forward the "degradable" standards or requirements for lunch box manufacturers. If we use 14.6 billion lunch boxes a year now, and each lunch box will increase the cost of 0.5 yuan, the take-away industry will spend 7.3 billion yuan more. Who will pay for these expenses?
"The take-away industry has changed from the Three Kingdoms to two leading companies. At this time, we should consider garbage disposal and environmental protection issues." Someone suggested this.
In Fang Peng’s view, if the policy level can guide and encourage enterprises that are willing to bear environmental costs not to suffer losses, they can use economic leverage to incite the enthusiasm of enterprises through the compensation mechanism, so that maintaining the environment becomes a rational choice for all parties. "Takeaway enterprises should bear the responsibility of recycling plastic lunch boxes and allocate special funds to lunch box recycling or processing enterprises according to sales." Considering the characteristics of Chinese catering, PP lunch boxes can only be used in many cases. "In terms of technology and policy, support PP lunch box manufacturers to develop degradable PP lunch box production technology, sign a recycling plan for PP lunch boxes with take-away merchants and take-away platforms, and advocate diners who use PP lunch boxes to consciously clean their lunch boxes and put them in designated recycling places to facilitate later recycling."
In June this year, Meituan Takeaway, China Cuisine Association and China Environmental Protection Foundation jointly launched the Green Takeaway Industry Convention (Green Ten Articles) with a number of food and beverage take-away brands, including the content of "promoting the use of green tableware", and called on the scientific research community to provide intellectual support for the industry and develop degradable and environmentally friendly lunch boxes with high quality and low price. However, at present, the implementation of the "Green Ten" can only rely on industry self-discipline, and its effect needs time to test.
● Reporter’s Notes
How to crack the garbage pollution of take-away packaging
In many developed countries, the food take-away industry is very prosperous. Why are there no serious take-away garbage pollution in these countries?
The reason is that in these countries, paper and degradable lunch boxes are the mainstream of take-away packaging. In the domestic catering industry, for the sake of cost, most merchants choose cheap plastic lunch boxes and abandon green lunch boxes such as degradable cartons. However, the manufacturing cost of plastic lunch boxes is low, but the environmental cost is very high.
If you only hit the board on the ordering platform, it may be biased. The defects of relevant industrial policies and the imperfect garbage recycling system have greatly aggravated the seriousness of this problem. Just as Fang Peng said, to solve the pollution problem of take-away plastic waste, it is necessary to clearly define the responsibilities of individual consumers, take-away enterprises, garbage disposal enterprises and the government, and all parties should work together.
The state should greatly increase the use cost of plastic lunch boxes and reduce the use cost of green lunch boxes such as paper boxes through tax leverage, so as to curb the source of take-away packaging pollution.
In addition, the pollution of take-away packaging has also exposed the backwardness of the current garbage recycling system. At present, our garbage disposal is still in an extensive stage, and there is no effective classified recycling system. Take-away packaging, as a recyclable resource, has not been effectively recycled, resulting in annoying garbage. It not only causes pollution, but also brings waste.
The take-away ordering platform needs to actively fulfill its environmental responsibilities and cannot turn a blind eye to the problem of increasing garbage. At the same time, it also needs an effective public governance mechanism under the leadership of the government for take-away packaging and garbage recycling. Only by working together can we find a way to crack the "garbage siege" of take-away packaging.
