Discarded paper packaging "72 change"

In Chongming Dongtan, a special plank road will be laid: iron gray, with a foot-like floor, but it will not rot. When you stood above and watched the gulls and birds playfully set off and watched the green waves set by the innocent reeds, you couldn't think of any way: the plastic flooring that laid the plank road was used to drink the rest of your milk and beverage bags daily. produced.

The change of waste paper packaging into plastic-wood flooring is only one of its “72 changes”. After “environmental travel”, through the processing and processing of professional manufacturers, waste paper packaging can produce a large number of daily necessities and industrial materials such as recycled paper, flooring, trash cans, hangers, table tennis rackets, and trays, which are beneficial to environmental protection. Can produce good economic benefits. But today, Shanghai's massive waste paper packaging can be less than 10% of the "72 changes."

It's a shame to waste it

The scientific name of the paper packaging is “Compound paper packaging”, which consists of 6 layers of 75% pulp, 20% plastic, and 5% aluminum.

Composite paper packaging was originally a kind of triangular bag, and now it has been full of tricks: square Tetra Pak bricks, plump Troll pillows, multi-angled Tetra Pak. Its use is more and more extensive, and milk, soy milk, coffee, beverages and many other liquid food packaging are indispensable. According to statistics, only about 12,000 tons of milk paper packaging is consumed in Shanghai every year. If we add paper packaging for drinks such as Coke and coffee, it is a massive amount.

Due to the stringent requirements of food, the paper pulp, plastics and aluminum used in composite paper packaging are all the most advanced. For example, the paper in composite paper packaging is made of high-quality raw fibers and can be recycled and reused. Experts estimate that if they are all recycled, they can use at least 9,000 tons of primary pulp each year, saving 2,400 tons of plastic and 600 tons of aluminum, and save a lot of landfill space.

Unfortunately, because consumers do not understand the characteristics of renewable use of paper packaging, after drinking the beverage, waste packaging is often thrown away. Therefore, a large number of composite paper packages are mixed in household waste, or transported to waste incineration plants, torched, or sent to landfills and buried. Since the composite paper package contains a large amount of non-degradable materials, when the garbage is burned and buried, not only resources and
The waste of energy, but also pollute the environment.

A change: 10% of premium papers are recycled in composite paper packaging and have the privilege of participating in environmental trips where they can participate in a series of fantastic juggling games.

High-quality kraft paper is the first trick to change the packaging of composite paper.

Kraft paper emphasizes fastness, so long fiber pulp is used to produce imported long fiber pulp at a price of 5,000 to 6,000 yuan per ton. It is estimated that 80,000 composite paper packages will weigh about 1 ton and 500 kilograms of high-grade pulp can be extracted. In the ordinary pulp, only 20%-40% of the recycled paper pulp packaged in composite paper can be added to produce high-quality kraft paper. The market price is between 4,500 yuan and 5,000 yuan. The kraft paper produced from the recycled pulp packaged in composite paper has a production cost reduction of 1,000 yuan per ton compared with the kraft paper produced from imported pulp.

In an interview with Tetra China, Yang Bin, vice president of corporate communications, sent a business card “looks like” with unusual colors: the color is yellow, looks rough, and feels like ordinary paper. A closer look at the small line: "100% Tetra Packaging Recycling Materials". She told reporters that the separated paper pulp can be directly made into recycled paper products such as paper, envelopes, paper bags, books, exercise books, etc. It can also be mixed with other pulps to make board papers, midsoles, and paper towels. Since the paper in the composite paper package is made of high-quality raw fibers, it is much more cost-effective than ordinary waste paper. According to reports, the price per ton of paper products made from recycled pulp of ordinary waste paper is 2,500 yuan, while that of paper products made from recycled paper pulp packed with composite paper is about 5,000 yuan per ton. At present, the business cards of all Tetra Pak employees are printed on recycled paper. Most of the notebooks are made of softer recycled paper. The reporter saw that the company was still experimenting with recycled paper for printing paper.

Second change: aluminum plastic particles

The fiber, aluminum and plastic layers of composite paper packaging are bonded together by thermal compounding. Since the expansion and gravity of the three materials are different, the composite paper packaging is put into a professional hydraulic pulper for mixing and beating. No heating and auxiliary chemicals are required. Fibers, plastic layers, and aluminum plastic layers are automatically separated and suspended in water.

After the aluminum-plastic and paper of the composite paper package “separate ways”, they turned into aluminum-plastic particles. The price of aluminum-plastic particles in the market is 3,000 yuan per ton. The particles can be used in the raw materials of aluminum-plastic composite boards to 30%, which is the raw material for making flower pots, industrial pallets, sewage pipes and other plastic products. According to reports, more advanced separation technologies have emerged in foreign countries. Aluminum-plastic ions can be separated into aluminum ingots and paraffin. Aluminum ingots can once again become a raw material for composite paper packaging. The price per ton in the market is around 19,000 yuan, while paraffin can be used as a chemical raw material.

Three changes: color music board

A set of student desks and chairs, a teacher's desk... These seemingly ordinary furniture are not ordinary, all made of discarded composite paper packaging materials! According to Tian Jianwei, general manager of Shanghai Caile Environmental Products Co., Ltd., more than 4,000 tons of discarded composite paper packaging is recycled into the “new home” each year, making it a raw material for making environmentally-friendly furniture. It is reported that these environmental protection products have been settled in some schools and factories and will enter the public life in the future.

He remarked to the reporter: 20 Troll packs can be made into a small pen holder; 200 Tetra Pak can be made into a small stool; 2000 Tetra Pak can be used as a small table... Introductory, they will be discarded Tetra Pak packaging recycling, and then after cleaning, crushing, heating, pressing and a series of high-tech process, magically "change" out a block of material board. He told the author that in addition to furniture panels, many wooden building materials can also be replaced with recycled materials, such as floors, handrails, baseboards, etc., not only waterproof, moisture, acid and alkali, the most important thing is that you can save a lot of wood every year.

Now their company's best-selling product is an environmentally friendly trash can. In the streets of Shanghai, this yellow and green double barrel can be seen everywhere. The appearance of this type of trash can not be much different from an ordinary trash can, but the material of its barrel is derived from aluminum, plastic milk disposable bags, disposable cans, food packaging bags, disposable snack boxes, etc., which are randomly discarded in our daily lives. , paper materials, and then made through a series of high-tech technology such as crushing, heating, pressing and so on. This material is not only turning waste into treasure, but also waterproof, moisture-proof, acid and alkali resistant, washable, and the strength can reach the national standard of medium density fiberboard. Relevant person in charge, according to the conversion of the trash cans into the required materials, an environmental trash equivalent to save a tree planted for 3 years, equivalent to saving 30 kg -50 kg of iron ore, should be full of " Environmental trash." Because it is completely made of waste materials, there is no such thing as a stainless steel trash can easily lose.

According to reports, this environmental protection trash has just come out, it has set off a boom in Guangdong, Yunnan, Guizhou, Jiangxi, Hunan, Shandong and other provinces and cities. In Guangdong Province alone, there are already 30,000 environmental trash bins on the streets, and more than half of street trash cans in Guangzhou are named “environmental protection”. At present, there are about 150,000 various types of trash cans on the streets of Shanghai. It is planned that after two to three years, half of them will become environmental protection trash cans. At present, the number of such environmental protection trash bins has been no less than 500.

Four changes: high-strength plastic wood

In the Beverly Hills oasis area of ​​Oasis, a waterfront small bridge was built with 80 square meters of new materials, and it is still used as it is for 3 years. This new material is called plastic wood, which is crushed and extruded by waste composite paper packaging. This material not only has the characteristics of water-resistant and anti-corrosion of plastics, but also has the texture of wood and can replace wood. It is a building material that is more popular in the world and is widely used as outdoor building materials such as floors, fences, chair stools or waterfront landscapes.

According to calculations, the use of one ton of wood and plastic products can reduce the pollution of 60,000 waste plastic bags, which is equivalent to the less felling of 1.5 30-year old eucalyptus trees. After its 7 to 10 years of use cycle, these plastic wood products can also be recycled. The effect of this two-way recycling is unmatched by other materials. Compared with ordinary wood, the price of wood is slightly higher, which is equivalent to the price of high-grade wood in wood. At present, the price per ton of plastic and wood in the market is 6,500 yuan, the production cost is 4,200 yuan, and the economic benefits are also considerable.

The environmental protection of the origin, a lot of money, makes some manufacturers across the country optimistic about plastic production. According to reports, Nanjing, a company's production of plastic wood products, not only used in the Nanjing Zhongshan Mausoleum scenic leisure chairs and the Qinhuai River plank road, but also for the Beijing Olympic Park tailor-made plastic wood architecture. According to the design plan, they will provide 3,000 to 5,000 tons of plastic and wood products to the Olympic Park for the construction of original wooden structures such as plank roads, chairs and flower pots in the park.

Transfiguration has trouble

Experts pointed out that, theoretically speaking, according to the nature of composite paper packaging, discarded paper packaging can also be changed again and again: made of mud bricks, cement boards, roof waterproof materials, and materials, such as joint solvents. These directions of utilization have yet to be studied.

The re-use of the end of the composite paper package is well underway in foreign countries. However, at home, the current situation is worrying. According to incomplete statistics, including Taiwan, China has a total of 12 large-scale recycling and recycling enterprises. Like most waste recycling companies, they face the embarrassment of being hungry since they were born.

China is a big country in the use of composite paper packaging. Last year, the amount of paper packaging used exceeded 20 billion, with a total weight of 250,000 tons, but less than 10% can be recycled, which is far below the recycling rate of 50% to 60% of similar waste products in developed countries. According to Yang Bin, vice president of Tetra China Corporate Communications, in 2006, China discarded 18 billion Tetra Pak packaging, with a recycling capacity of more than 4,900 tons, equivalent to nearly 500 million Tetra Pak packaging.

In order to recycle the composite paper packaging, the re-use companies are painstaking. Sixty percent of the raw materials of Shanghai Caile Environmental Protection Products Co., Ltd. come from corner scraps of companies such as Tetra Pak. They are also linked to some schools to recycle the "student milk" packaging; to a waste recycling station, a family buys at a bargaining price; and co-operates with the neighborhood committees of Xuhui, Jing'an and Putuo Districts to recycle the composite paper packaging in the citizens' homes. In addition, they also opened a Tetra Pak recycling hotline. Even so, the company's annual production capacity is still 60% empty.

The use of a single company to purchase scraps from scavengers or scrap collection sites is time-consuming and laborious, and weakens the economics of recycled products. In January of this year, Tetra Pak China and Beijing Joint Open Source Resource Recycling Co., Ltd. jointly launched the recycling of milk beverage paper packaging in Beijing. This activity aimed at the “nodes of crowds” at the end of the milk beverage paper packaging recycling roadmap—50 “breaking rotten kings” in the community, and they were specially trained to recycle milk beverage paper packaging. Through pilot projects, the total recycled content of composite paper packaging in Beijing reached more than 8,000 kilograms within two months, among which the highest individual recovery amount of scavengers reached more than 600 kilograms. According to reports, this recycling model is expected to be promoted throughout the country.

Waste composite paper packaging to eliminate the troubles of transformation, the formation of recycling industry, but also rely on the reconstruction of the domestic waste classification and recovery system. In this regard, the Brazilian practice is worth learning from. According to statistics, Brazil produces 140,000 tons of municipal solid waste every day. The waste recycling rate has reached 10%, of which the recycling rate of paper packaging is as high as 79%. In Brazil, domestic garbage is divided into two categories: dry and wet garbage, and then diverted through such channels as door-to-door collection, public conscious delivery, and scavengers' cooperatives. The Brazilian government encourages