Bioplastic implant life cycle analysis

At the moment, the tumultuous plasticizer incident has caused people to question the safety of traditional plastic processing, and bioplastics have not been affected. Relevant experts pointed out that compared with traditional plastics, although bio-plastics have more advantages in green environment, but to truly achieve safety and environmental protection, life cycle analysis needs to be introduced, that is, from the raw material production, transportation, use to recycling and destruction, etc. The cleanliness of plastics.

In recent years, the supply of global oil resources has continued to be tense, and the environmental protection pressures faced by the synthetic resin products industry have been increasing. This has given rise to the expansion of the market for bioplastics. According to Professor Guo Baohua of Tsinghua University, the world’s current plastic production exceeds 250 million tons, about 25% of which is used for disposable packaging materials and low-life materials, so about 70 million tons of plastic can be replaced with biodegradable materials, if 20% of them With the substitution of biodegradable materials, the global demand for biodegradable materials will reach 14 million tons, while the current global production capacity of biodegradable materials is about 450,000 tons. According to statistics from the European Bioplastics Association, bioplastics will grow at an average annual rate of more than 20% in the coming years.

The fast-growing market is bound to attract people's attention to the safety and environmental protection of bio-plastics. Most experts take a positive attitude toward bioplastics. Zhang Xiangnan, deputy secretary-general of the Innovation Alliance for Low-Carbon Bioplastics, said that since bioplastics are derived from natural biomass materials and plasticizers for processing are mostly green products such as citric acid esters and glycerides, they have good safety. However, experts pointed out that the current "green argument" of bioplastics producers is very complicated and environmentalists hold reservations about them. On the one hand, the production of bio-plastics will produce carbon dioxide, which will lead to global warming. On the other hand, bio-based raw material biomass materials have carbon neutrality and can convert 200 billion tons of carbon dioxide into carbohydrates each year through photosynthesis. In addition, bioplastics face the issue of recycling management after use. For example, polylactic acid PLA bottles have problems with the reconstitution of recycled materials. Due to the lack of bioplastic labeling methods, people often cannot sort PLA and other plastics. Although the current PLA level has not yet constituted serious pollution, a large number of PLA bottles will hinder polyethylene terephthalate (PET). ) recycling of bottles.

In the face of these problems, industry experts pointed out that judging whether bioplastics are low in carbon and environmental protection requires life cycle analysis. Dr. Guangming Guang of Nanjing University of Technology introduced that the so-called life cycle analysis is to analyze and evaluate the impact of products on the resources and environment during the entire process of raw material production, transportation, use, recycling and destruction. For example, the recycling of PET bottles to produce non-woven fabrics, because of the reuse of PET materials, the recycling process is environmentally friendly, but the process of producing non-woven fabrics consumes a lot of water, if the non-woven fabrics are not recycled after use or incineration The words will pollute the environment. Another example is papermaking. Because the raw material is biomass, it can be degraded and is environmentally friendly. However, the papermaking waste liquid in the production process is seriously polluted. Therefore, from the perspective of the whole life cycle, papermaking will certainly pollute the environment.

Ji Shufan, an official with the Department of Science and Technology of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, pointed out that the focus on the cleanliness of plastics production from the product life cycle is to focus on the harmlessness of the whole process from raw material production to scrapping. He suggested that companies should actively focus on the low carbon content of their products, reduce their carbon footprint, and participate in carbon emissions trading.

Experts believe that life cycle analysis will promote the development of carbon trading. As a clean energy mechanism, carbon trading is the most popular explanation: “Other people save money, you come to reduce emissions,” and others rely on money? Life cycle analysis is one of the basis. According to Xu Guangming, many countries have begun to encourage the development of biomass plastics through the imposition of carbon taxes, such as Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, and life cycle analysis can provide a basis for the assessment of carbon taxes.