The rapid rise of biodegradable industries to reduce carbon dioxide emissions

Regional development betting on reducing plastic industry, wary of low-end overcapacity
On April 14th, a seminar on the high-quality development of plastic products (pipeline industry) was held in Huaiyang District, Zhoukou, Henan Province. Wang Zhanjie, Chairman of the China Plastics Processing Industry Association, expressed in his speech that he hopes the Huaiyang District government can fully leverage the brand advantages of the "City of Plastic Products in China", promote industrial chain clustering development, and strive to create a high-quality development highland for the plastic products industry.
It is understood that Huaiyang District has more than 100 plastic product enterprises, with more than 20000 employees. The annual output value of related industries reaches 30.32 billion yuan, accounting for more than 29% of the market share in Henan Province. At the same time as planning and constructing a plastic product industrial park, Huaiyang District has launched a degradable new material industrial park construction project, which can produce 100000 tons of degradable agricultural plastic film, shopping bags, packaging bags and other series of products annually after completion. Faced with the issue of plastic reduction, many parts of the country have begun to build related project parks.
The reporter learned that currently, multiple places such as Dongguan Sichun, Shandong Shouguang, Anhui Bengbu, and Taiyuan in Shanxi are constructing or have already established characteristic industrial clusters of bio based new materials, creating industrial systems represented by bio based platform compounds, bio based plastics, and bio based fibers.
Before 2019, the growth rate of production and sales of degradable plastics in China was relatively slow. With the promotion of the second edition of the "plastic ban" and the "dual carbon" policy in 2020, the production and sales growth rate of degradable plastics in China have significantly increased.
According to a report by Zhongyan Puhua, the production and sales of degradable plastics in China in 2021 were 302000 tons and 276000 tons respectively, both increasing by more than 20% compared to the previous year. The planned annual production capacity under construction exceeds 4 million tons. At the same time, the report points out that the existing biodegradable plastic varieties and cost-effectiveness in the market are still difficult to compare with traditional plastics, resulting in limited application scope of biodegradable plastics. In addition, according to the requirements of the second edition of the "Plastic Prohibition Order", which prohibits and restricts the production, sales, and use of some plastic products, if the planned production capacity of 4 million tons/year of degradable plastics is put into operation, it will exceed the most stringent policy requirements for the use of degradable plastics in the future. By the end of the 14th Five Year Plan, there will be an overcapacity problem.
At the same time, the report shows that the global biodegradable plastic substitution industry is still in the early stages of development, and the market penetration rate urgently needs to be improved. Among them, fossil sourced plastics still have the highest market share, with a share of up to 75%, while biodegradable plastics only account for 1%, leaving a large market space.