News:Adopting green packaging and reducing plastic pollution is promoting the "green whirlwind" of food packaging. The reporter learned from the seminar of the rPE project team that in recent years, some leading companies in the industry are aiming at exploring the high-value application of recycled materials in food contact materials at the same level, and recycled materials have become the "new favorite" of food packaging.
rPE can help drastically reduce plastic pollution
Statistics show that the world produces more than 400 million tons of plastic every year, of which 1/3 is only used once; it is equivalent to 2,000 garbage trucks full of plastic dumping plastic into rivers, lakes and seas every day. Among them are plastic food contact materials.
Polyethylene (PE) is one of the three major food contact plastic packaging materials. Polyethylene (PE) is widely used in food packaging such as milk boxes and beverage cups. At present, the disposal of waste PE food contact materials is mainly based on landfill and incineration, which brings problems such as waste of resources and environmental pollution. In addition, the recycling rate of post-consumer PE food contact materials is still not high, and it is still dominated by single downgrading rather than multiple recycling. The recycling value of most PE plastic products will be reduced correspondingly after downcycling, and high-value utilization and recycling cannot be realized.
A few days ago, at the rPE project team seminar hosted by the Joint Working Group on the Sustainable Development of Food Contact Materials (SFCM) of Shanghai Junshi Institute of Life Sciences, experts and business representatives shared their research and ideas on how to promote the high-value application of rPE. experience.
"rPE is a recycled polyethylene (PE) material." Zhong Huaining, director of the IQTC National Key Laboratory of Food Contact Materials Testing (Guangdong), said, "Exploring the high-value application of PE recycled materials is crucial to solving the waste pollution of plastic food contact materials. It is of great significance to promote the green and sustainable development of the food contact materials industry."
On the one hand, the recycling of post-consumer plastic food contact materials can reduce the dependence on virgin plastics produced by petroleum, reduce the consumption of natural resources, and bring economic benefits of resource conservation; on the other hand, the recycling of post-consumer plastic food contact materials Utilization can greatly reduce the amount of plastic waste generated, and reduce the pressure and negative impact of plastic waste on the ecological environment.
