This is about the past and present of pulp molded products.
As the world’s growing call for “living in harmony with nature” and the further strengthening of humanity’s awareness of a “global community with a shared future”, environmental protection is no longer just a research topic for experts and scholars . Advantage): Trivium Packaging’s latest 2020 study shows that nearly three-quarters (74%) of consumers are willing to pay more for sustainable packaging. The report, developed in collaboration with Boston Consulting Group, surveyed participants on their attitudes toward sustainable packaging and whether they are willing to pay more for products with environmentally friendly packaging. The report found that most participants considered themselves to be environmentally conscious consumers, with more than two-thirds of them considering environmentally friendly and recyclable packaging to be very important. Of the 74% who said they were willing to pay more for sustainable packaging, nearly a quarter were willing to pay 10% or more for the increased cost . In China, although the pulp molding industry has experienced more than 30 years of development, it is still a very niche category. Only a few people understand the connotation of pulp molding and its huge role in replacing disposable plastics. Some people only focus on simple packaging such as pulp molded egg trays and lunch boxes. People outside the industry and even staff of relevant management departments do not know much about it. With the further implementation of China’s ban on plastic and the widespread application of pulp molded products in various fields, the positive role of pulp molding as a green and environmentally friendly technology product is being recognized and accepted by more and more people.
According to statistics, as the world’s largest manufacturing country, China produced 189.991 million televisions and 17 million mobile phones in 2019.
100 million units, 74.33 million washing machines, 77.539 million refrigerators, 218.662 million air conditioners, 210.45 million electric fans, 84.99 million microwave ovens, and hundreds of millions of other small household appliances. According to statistics, in 2019, the output of China’s large-scale plastic products enterprises was close to 81.8417 million tons, and the total processing capacity exceeded 100 million tons, ranking first in the world. Plastic products are almost involved in people’s food, clothing, housing and transportation. If only its waste accounts for 10% of its total output, the amount of waste will also exceed 8.18 million tons, among which the amount of disposable plastic products used in takeaway fast food, e-commerce packaging and electrical appliance packaging is the largest. Now in major cities, tourist attractions, along transportation routes, rivers, lakes and seas in China, discarded plastic items can be seen everywhere, and landfills are built around cities. The damage to the human living environment and the various hazards caused by it are shocking. This is also the fundamental reason why “white pollution” has become a “rat crossing the street”. More importantly, the huge harm of “white pollution” not only brings many difficulties to environmental protection work, but also adds an unnecessary economic burden to the country and the people. According to relevant data, the direct and indirect treatment costs of 1 ton of plastic waste can reach more than 10 times its original output value . As the research on microplastics’ environmental pollution and threats to humans becomes more and more in-depth, the harm of microplastics has gradually surfaced. The latest research shows that microplastics have threatened the survival of marine life, as well as the development of tourism, fisheries and commerce, and have an increasingly serious potential impact on human health.
As the international community pays more and more attention to environmental protection, many countries have successively determined environmental protection measures in the form of legislation, and promoted the implementation of environmental protection policies from the aspects of policies, technological development, theory, and the cooperative relationship between enterprises and consumers. The packaging and environmental protection regulations promulgated by the European Community (now the European Union) in 1991 stipulate that polystyrene foam plastics should be avoided in transportation packaging and sales packaging , and pulp molded products should be used instead. China is a signatory to the Montreal Protocol and the Vienna Declaration. The Montreal Protocol and the Vienna Declaration stipulate that China must achieve the specified goals by 2005. In this regard, China has made a solemn commitment to the world to protect the human environment . In reducing the harm of plastic waste to humans and their environment and promoting pollution-free industrial products, China, as a populous country, should be at the forefront of the world. On April 1, 1996, China promulgated the “Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution by Solid Waste”, which stipulates the “three-transformation” principle, namely, advocating resource utilization, reduction and harmlessness of solid waste.
Pulp molded products are made of completely recyclable plant fiber pulp or waste paper products as the basic material, and are made using unique process technology. They are pollution-free, green and environmentally friendly products that are widely used in the fields of food (drug) storage, electrical appliance packaging, planting and seedling cultivation, medical utensils, handicraft bases and fragile product cushioning packaging. In the context of the global implementation of plastic bans and restrictions, pulp molded products are unique in their distinctive features of wide range of raw materials, pollution-free, easy to degrade, recyclable and renewable, and environmentally friendly style, making them stand out among all kinds of plastic material substitutes. They have not only become a beautiful landscape in the current tide of environmental protection, but also become one of the most effective ways to prevent and control “white pollution”.
Foreign scholars have conducted experimental research on pulp molded products and believe that under certain conditions, the performance of pulp molded products is better than that of foamed plastic products. The performance comparison of pulp molded products and foamed plastic products is shown in Table 1-2 .
Pulp molding products are mainly made of herbaceous fiber pulp or recycled pulp from waste paper products, which are widely available from sources such as reeds, bagasse, and wheat straw. They are naturally pure in nature. Because the demand for their raw materials is relatively small compared to the papermaking industry (1 ton of pulp can produce 40,000 600mL standard lunch boxes ), if all the fast food industry in China switches to paper mold tableware boxes, the total annual demand for pulp will be more than 1 million tons. Manufacturers generally use purchased commercial pulp instead of making their own pulp, so pulp molding manufacturers themselves generally do not have the problem of environmental pollution caused by pulping. After the manufacturer buys back the pulp, it undergoes the crushing and sparse processes, and is formed in a mold of the intended shape by a molding machine to form a primary bad material, which is then heated, dried, calendered, and formed into a complete paper mold product. If paper mold tableware is produced, a certain proportion of non-toxic chemical additives must be added to the pulp to prevent oil and water, and then it can be put on the market after disinfection, sterilization, and strict packaging and sealing processes. According to the survey, most of the pulp molding product manufacturers that have officially put into production can pass the relevant testing standards and be put on the market. Some manufacturers’ products have also passed the railway industry standard TB/T2611.1-1999 “Technical Conditions for the Supply of Disposable Lunch Boxes for Railways “, and are approved for use along the railway lines. Now, in addition to being found on major railway trunk lines, paper mold tableware has also appeared on various Changhang flights and some large and medium-sized cities across the country. Its rise and gradual popularity have played a positive role in standardizing urban environmental management, protecting natural landscapes, and preventing and controlling “white pollution”. At the same time, other categories of pulp molded products have also made great progress in exploring their own unique development paths, and have found their own roles in various fields that adapt to product packaging materials, laying a solid foundation for pulp molded packaging products to enter the domestic and foreign packaging markets as soon as possible.
From the analysis of the production process, the production line of pulp molded products is generally composed of two major parts: molding equipment and drying equipment. Tableware products have higher requirements and need to add shaping calendering and disinfection and sterilization equipment. Paper mold molding methods are generally divided into two types: vacuum adsorption molding outside the mold and injection molding inside the mold. The drying method is also divided into two types according to the different molding methods. Vacuum adsorption molding outside the mold generally adopts the drying of the outside mold, and injection molding inside the mold is mostly directly heated and dried in the mold. After the drying of tableware products is completed, the last process, namely calendering and shaping, is required to obtain a crisp and neat appearance of the product. From the perspective of the entire process of the pulp molded product production line, since there is no pulping process in its production, the daily water consumption of a production line with a daily output of 100,000 lunch boxes generally does not exceed 20 tons , and it is recycled; its energy design is mainly electrical energy, which is clean and easy to manage; waste products in production can also be immediately recycled and broken down for reuse. Therefore, no matter which production method is adopted, the production of pulp molded products basically has no “three wastes” discharge, and with a reasonable water treatment system, it can basically achieve zero discharge, and the entire production process is free of environmental pollution. Of course, if the characteristics of pulp molded products were limited to this, people might not pay so much attention to it. The biggest advantage of this type of product is that it can be 100% recycled and reused.
The discarded pulp molded products after use by consumers can be directly recycled by the waste recycling department and sent to papermaking enterprises or pulp mold period Enterprises use it for production. If a papermaking enterprise makes a ton of pulp of roughly the same quality from grass and wood raw materials, its production cost will not be less than 2,500 yuan. Given the current level of raw material acquisition management of small and medium-sized papermaking enterprises in China, waste paper mold products with relatively low cost and good quality are quite popular as raw materials. Therefore, relying on papermaking enterprises and paper mold enterprises near each central city or tourist city, a waste paper mold product recycling network is established, combining “points” with “lines” to form a larger recycling coverage area. This can not only solve the problem of urban garbage pollution, but also better solve the problem of mobile garbage disposal, and greatly improve the utilization level of waste paper mold products. In this way, paper mold products have truly achieved the optimal economic goal of sustainable development in terms of resource optimization and recycling, and have effectively implemented the environmental protection policy of “reduction, harmlessness and resource utilization”.
In summary, several environmental protection features of pulp molding products can be summarized :
- The main raw materials for making pulp molded tableware or high-end pulp molded industrial packaging products are mostly annual herbaceous plant fiber pulp, such as reeds, bagasse, wheat straw, rice straw, cotton straw, bamboo, etc. Such raw materials are widely available, naturally clean, and not easily restricted, and will not cause new environmental damage due to the use of wood. At present, domestic pulping manufacturers with annual production capacity of more than 100,000 tons and reed, bagasse, wheat straw and other grass fibers as the main raw materials have their own pollution control systems. In terms of raw materials, pulp molding production can completely take a path of “centralized pulping and decentralized production”. Not only does it have no environmental pollution problems, but it can also obtain more reliable raw material guarantees. Pulp molding companies that use waste paper raw materials do not have the environmental pollution problems caused by pulping.
(2) The process technology used in pulp molding production is simple and practical, and there is basically no pollution source in the production process, which meets the requirements of environmentally friendly production. In addition, except for the high quality requirements of personnel in the automatic control system management of each process of its production line, the rest are skilled techniques that can be mastered and used after a short period of training. In addition, the degree of localization of its equipment is very high, which is very conducive to the popularization and promotion of this project. This is also a convenient condition for quickly exerting the environmental advantages of pulp molding products.
(3) Pulp molded products have many application areas, a large market capacity, and rich potential. They can be widely used in electrical packaging , planting and seedling cultivation, medical utensils, catering, and fragile packaging. A compatible paper mold production line can produce products for different purposes with just a slight improvement on the mold. Its diversified functions and recycling characteristics are far beyond the reach of many products with the same purpose. As a populous country, China has a very broad prospect for the large-scale development of pulp molded products.
(4) Now, all major cities in China are facing increasing pressure from municipal management, among which the disposal of various types of plastic waste is one of the important issues. The recyclable nature of pulp molding products can mobilize the recycling enthusiasm of a considerable number of people, making the environment
The work pressure of the environmental protection and sanitation departments will be greatly relieved, and its economic benefits will also play a positive role. After pulp molding products enter the daily life field in large quantities, they will surely be widely accepted by the society and generally welcomed by people.
(5) As an important branch of pulp molded products, paper tableware has its own distinctive characteristics. Compared with disposable plastic tableware, it has many advantages in environmental protection : easy to recycle, reusable, self-degradable, originating from nature and returning to nature. It is a typical pollution-free green environmental protection product that meets the requirements of the times and market needs. In the current “tableware replacement” work that the country attaches great importance to, it is listed as the first choice for plastic tableware. Paper tableware deserves it. At present, the global green wave of protecting the natural ecological environment is surging. The governments and people of developed countries all regard environmental protection as the foundation of the country and the source of survival. As early as 1987, the World Commission on Environment and Development proposed that human life and production methods should be adjusted to be more friendly and harmless to the environment. In 1999 , the Chinese government also established a research grant for “environmentally friendly materials (cellulose, etc.)” in the National Natural Science Foundation for the first time to help and support the development of environmental protection research. It can be said that the research, development and production application of pulp molding projects in China not only conform to the development of the times and the needs of society, but also reflect the foresight of the government and the pioneering spirit of enterprises ; its birth and promotion are not only a manifestation of scientific and technological progress, but also the result of human thinking and being more friendly to the environment. Through the unremitting efforts of pulp molding industry practitioners and the strong support of the government and people from all walks of life, pulp molding products will surely shoulder the glorious and arduous mission of environmental protection, making pulp molding products popular in the new era of green environmental protection.
