China's plastic processing industry strives to "plastic" a new pattern of green and high-quality development

China Economic Net, Nanjing, February 27 (reporter Su LAN) "If the environmental protection industry masterpiece" silent spring "let the world alert the emergence of a" silent spring ", then, today to Nanjing to participate in the industry's long-awaited offline exhibition, see peers' furious' development trend, I am very excited, feel the plastic industry 'vigorous spring' is coming....." On February 25, at the fifth China International Plastics Exhibition and plastic new materials, new technologies, new equipment, new products exhibition site (hereinafter referred to as the exhibition), Mr. Hou, who is engaged in food-grade plastic film production management from Fujian, spoke his mind when interviewed by a reporter from China Economic Net.

It is reported that the exhibition had to be postponed twice due to the epidemic, the whole industry has been looking forward to for a long time, from February 25 to 27, more than 1,000 enterprises from upstream and downstream of the whole industry chain competed to participate in the exhibition, including large backbone enterprises, listed companies, and the proportion of top 100 enterprises participating in the exhibition far exceeded the previous session. The exhibition has a total scale of 50,000 square meters, bringing together the latest development achievements of functional, lightweight, precision, ecological and intelligent technologies in the whole industry. In recent days, the enthusiasm of the audience continues to heat up, and the on-site business negotiations are active. According to statistics, the cumulative audience has exceeded 60,000 people in recent days.

At the exhibition site, the reporter found that the green development achievements of China's plastic industry "stand on the sky" : just someone here was attracted by the preservation of the film packaging of fresh vegetables, and there were people who exclaimed that the art of green packaging of hamburgers, cookies, candy and other food is too awesome; Then, people are amazed that the internal wires of satellites and manned spacecraft, the control lines and jackets around aerospace engines, etc., are made of high-end plastic products.....

"The plastics industry is closely related to people's lives. After years of development, the industry presents a situation of quantity and quality. According to statistics, China's plastic products have increased from 200 tons in 1952 to 77.72 million tons in 2022, with a compound growth rate of 20.2%. A 38-fold increase in 27 years. On the one hand, facing the major strategic needs of the country, a number of key components such as aerospace, Jiaolong, high-speed rail and other high-precision fields have made breakthroughs and tempered high-quality application products; On the other hand, more and more 'grounded' green innovations are serving the economy and society and benefiting people's livelihood." Wang Zhanjie, chairman of China Plastics Processing Industry Association, said in an interview with China Economic Network.

Strengthen scientific and technological innovation to promote industrial transformation and upgrading

It is understood that in recent years, the plastic processing industry to scientific and technological innovation, green low-carbon, specialized new, high-quality development as the focus, adhere to the lead of science and technology, carry out technological research, and achieve remarkable results.

At the third China Plastics Industry Science and Technology Conference held in the same period with the theme of "Pioneering and Innovation to promote transformation, Forge ahead and seek development", Zhang Chonghe, president of the China Light Industry Federation, introduced that in 2022, the operating income of enterprises in the plastic processing industry is nearly 2.3 trillion yuan, the total profit exceeds 132 billion yuan, and the total export value is nearly 108 billion US dollars. Year-on-year growth was 9.3 per cent.

"The plastic processing industry has won 8 scientific and technological invention Awards and 30 scientific and technological progress Awards from the China Light Industry Federation." Up to now, 14 key laboratories in the light industry and 6 in engineering technology have been built. The scientific and technological strength of the whole industry has been greatly improved, and the competitiveness has been significantly enhanced." Zhang Chonghe stressed that in the past two years, 26 enterprises in the plastic processing industry have been selected as the green factory of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, 42 products have entered the list of green design products of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, 4 enterprises have won the title of green supply chain management enterprises of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, more than 150 enterprises have been selected as the new "little giant" enterprises of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and 23 enterprises have won the national manufacturing single champion demonstration. 15 products have become national manufacturing individual champions. The transformation and upgrading of the whole industry has achieved remarkable results, and the foundation for sustainable development is more stable.

Professor Jian Xigao, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and professor of Dalian University of Technology, said in the report of the science and Technology conference: "Practice has repeatedly told us that key technologies and core technologies cannot be bought or introduced unless they come. Independent innovation is the only way to scale the world's scientific and technological peak and become bigger and stronger."

Jian Xigao further explained that aircraft in the aerospace field are exposed to extreme temperatures and harmful rays for a long time, and the harsh conditions require very high endurance limit energy for navigation instruments that rely on complex electronic devices to transmit signals. The R & D team has worked hard to overcome many difficulties, and has developed temperature resistant facilities such as internal wires and sensors of satellites and manned spacecraft, control lines and sheathing around aerospace engines, dynamic and static sealing components of aircraft hydraulic systems and fuel systems, etc., contributing to the successful transformation of major national scientific research projects, but also finding a breakthrough for leading the development of the industry.

Zhejiang Shuanglin Environmental Co., LTD., which has made outstanding contributions to solving the "jam neck" technology in the plastic industry, was commended at the science and technology conference together with many enterprises. The company broke the monopoly of foreign equipment with the ultra-large caliber polyethylene solid wall pipe equipment PE2600, which was first developed in China.

When Wu Wenqiang, general manager of the company, spoke on behalf of the enterprises honored, he said that strengthening scientific and technological innovation made enterprises stand out and found a new path for the transformation and upgrading of the industry. The gathering of leading enterprises, research institutes and brand conferences in China International Plastics Exhibition are important links to connect the industrial chain and supply chain. Enterprises can not only win market orders. We can also acquire new technologies, new ideas, open up new horizons, and continue to explore new markets.

Face the pain points through the blocking points adhere to green and low-carbon leading development

Although the development of China's plastic processing industry has made certain achievements, the existing problems cannot be ignored. The "Outline for the Green Development of China's Plastics Processing Industry" issued by the China Plastics Industry Association in 2022 (hereinafter referred to as the "Outline") points out that the whole-chain governance capacity of the plastics processing industry to deal with plastic pollution is relatively weak, and the whole-chain governance system from the production, circulation, consumption, recycling and end disposal of plastic products is not sound enough. The classified collection and treatment of plastic waste is relatively weak, and the level of resource utilization is low. At present, China's plastic recycling industry development comprehensive planning has not yet improved, the relevant system is not perfect.

Enterprises are also facing pain points in development. Li Jianjun, foreign academician of the Russian Academy of Engineering, vice chairman and chief strategy officer of Golden Hair Technology, summed up the three major pain points of the plastic manufacturing industry from practice: that is, there are many control nodes of plastic manufacturing, and they are dispersed and not connected, and it is difficult to automate and intelligent transformation; The plastic manufacturing process is mostly in a black box state, with large process differences, poor detection aging, and large quality fluctuations; The production factors of plastic manufacturing process are discrete, isolated and different, and the matching with the current process management software is poor.

How to hit the pain point and open up the development block? Li Jianjun gave the solution: strengthen the visualization of highly automated, less humanized or even unmanned production process based on intelligent equipment and personalized software, and realize the mass customization of multi-level and node integration cloud control platform.

Li Jianjun, foreign academician of the Russian Academy of Engineering, Vice chairman and chief strategy officer of Golden Hair Technology, elaborated the research results of common technical quality system of high-quality recycling of domestic waste plastics at the third China Plastics Industry Science and Technology Conference. Photo by Su LAN, China Economic Net

"With the only authoritative research and development capability of the" State Key Laboratory for High Quality Utilization of polymer Resources "in the recycled plastics industry, as well as the research on the common technology of environmentally friendly high-performance recycled plastics and the high-quality recycling technology of waste plastics, the company has achieved remarkable results in the recycling and pre-treatment technology and reuse technology of environmentally friendly high-quality recycled plastics." At present, IT has provided services to more than 1,000 internationally renowned enterprises in more than 130 countries and regions around the world, and its products have been widely used in household appliances, packaging, home furnishing, automotive, IT, electronics, energy and other industries." Li Jianjun introduced.

Professor Wen Zongguo of the School of Environment, Tsinghua University, director of the Circular Economy Industry Research Center, the team has studied plastic waste management and other issues for many years and achieved results.

"Plastic waste management is one of the important environmental issues facing the world at present, clarifying the metabolic mechanism of plastic packaging and identifying alternative paths for material recycling is a basic scientific issue to promote green and low-carbon packaging and control environmental leakage rate." Wen Zongguo said that for more than 10 subdivided packaging materials, the establishment of localized environmental impact scientific data to support the ecological design of green and low-carbon packaging; More than 10,000 empirical tests have been carried out to accurately characterize the rule of urban 500 meters grid waste; The application of high-definition photography and spectral image recognition algorithms, the development of plastic packaging waste intelligent sorting technology...... Small takeaway packaging waste, in this way, the study is clear, and the waste packaging in life has become a research topic of great research value and a solution is given.

All sectors of society from different levels in the endeavour to solve the problem of development, as the whole industry how to find the right direction, comprehensive improvement? The Outline provides a timetable, a road map and binding targets:

The plastic processing industry should fully implement the green development strategy of the industry, seize new opportunities, respond to new challenges, and adhere to ecological priority and green development. It is necessary to promote green upgrading, promote energy saving and consumption reduction, reduce environmental pollution, strengthen green design, promote recycling, scientifically promote the application of degradable plastics, and pay attention to green regulations. To promote the construction of green circular economy parks and other aspects of nine work, to achieve steady improvement in energy efficiency, continuous decline in carbon emission intensity, industrial green development energy level, plastic processing industry energy efficiency steadily improved. It is planned that by 2025, the carbon dioxide emissions per unit industrial added value of the plastic processing industry will be reduced by 18%, and the energy consumption per unit added value of the enterprises will be reduced by 13.5%.

How to achieve goals with high quality? After a lot of in-depth research, Zhang Chonghe put forward four suggestions:

First of all, to overcome key technologies to promote the transformation and development of plastics industry. Standard international advanced, keep up with the forefront of science and technology, in the new energy functional application of membrane materials, solvo-free environmental protection materials, waste plastic high-value utilization, high-function engineering plastics and other key areas, organize technical research, and strive for international leadership. It is necessary to vigorously adopt recycling technology, promote the ecological construction of plastic processing, concentrate the strength of the industry, and carry out innovative research on plastic functionalization, lightweight, precision, ecological and intelligent.

Secondly, accelerate the transformation of technological achievements and promote the comprehensive transformation and development of the plastics industry. It is necessary to give full play to the leading role of experts, academicians and universities in innovation, build an integrated platform for industry-university-research and application, promote integrated innovation of industry-university-research and application, and form a collaborative system of R&D and transformation among enterprises, universities and institutes. It is necessary to build a comprehensive service platform, smooth channels for the application of achievements, integrate the innovation chain, industrial chain, human resources chain, and capital chain, and promote the application of scientific and technological achievements in a holistic manner.

In addition, we will strengthen low-carbon ecological manufacturing and promote the green transformation of the plastic industry. It is necessary to speed up the construction of a waste recycling system, promote the research and development and application of advanced technologies for energy saving and carbon reduction, strengthen the use of new green functional materials, strengthen the recycling and utilization of renewable resources, promote new technologies and products that can be recycled, easily recycled and degradable, reduce application costs, and increase the supply of green products. It is necessary to promote the upgrading of green chemical plants, accelerate the research and development of low-carbon product technology, strengthen the research of ecological degradation mechanism, build a carbon footprint accounting system for the whole life cycle of plastics, and cultivate new business forms and models of standardized recycling and recycling. To promote the green transformation and development of plastic processing industry with low-carbon and ecological technology.

Furthermore, deepen the digital "three products" action to promote the intelligent transformation and development of the plastics industry. The National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other five departments issued the "digital help consumer goods industry" three products "action plan. Plastic processing industry, to the number of intelligent enabling variety; It is necessary to create a brand with intelligent data, use digital technology, precise brand positioning, expand brand influence, enhance brand perception, enhance brand value, cultivate brand "specialization and new", and cultivate global well-known brands.

"The horn of endeavour has sounded, and China's plastic processing industry is cooperating with the heart of responsibility and determination to create a new situation of green and high-quality development!" Wang Zhanjie said.