the alarm that the earth has become a “plastic planet” has been sounded. The United Nations Environment Conference plans to end plastic pollution in 2024, and the A-share degradable plastic sector broke out
On March 4, the degradable plastic sector rose again in the session, Guangdong Tengen Industrial Group Co.Ltd(003003) harvested two sectors, Cgn Nuclear Technology Development Co.Ltd(000881) also closed the sector and rose by the limit, Hengli Petrochemical Co.Ltd(600346) , Jialian technology, Yifan Pharmaceutical Co.Ltd(002019) rose by more than 5%.
On the news, at the resumed session of the United Nations Environment Assembly held in Nairobi on March 2 local time, heads of state, environment ministers and other representatives from 175 countries approved a historic resolution aimed at reaching a legally binding international resolution to end plastic pollution by 2024.
The United Nations Environment assembly is the highest decision-making mechanism for global environmental issues. The resolution covers the entire life cycle of plastics, including their production, design and disposal.
plastic pollution alarm
Inger Andersen, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), said: “today marks the earth’s victory over disposable plastics. This is the most important environmental multilateral agreement since the Paris Agreement. It is an insurance policy for this and future generations. They may coexist with plastics, but they will not be destroyed by it.”
ESPEN Barth Eide, President of the United Nations Environment assembly and Minister of climate and environment of Norway, said that plastic pollution has become an “epidemic” and “through today’s resolution, we are officially on the road to cure”.
The reporter of the international finance news learned from the UNEP official website that the resolution adopted this time is entitled “ending plastic pollution: developing an internationally legally binding instrument”.
Based on three preliminary draft resolutions, the resolution established an Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (Inc), which will begin its work in 2022 with the goal of completing a legally binding global agreement by the end of 2024.
China’s policies are also making efforts. On February 23 this year, the Ministry of ecology and environment once again stressed that it would actively strengthen the treatment of plastic pollution. In the next step, it would implement the legal requirements of plastic pollution control, promote the effective implementation of the opinions on Further Strengthening the treatment of plastic pollution and the action plan for plastic pollution control in the 14th five year plan, and control plastic pollution accurately, scientifically and according to law. At the same time, we will further strengthen cooperation with the international community and actively contribute China’s experience and wisdom to the international community.
In addition, according to the statistics of the International Energy Agency (IEA), in the past five years, more than 60 countries have imposed bans or taxes on disposable plastics, while major economies such as the European Union, the United States and China have upgraded the “plastic restriction order” to “plastic prohibition order”.
Behind the “plastic restriction order” is the alarm of plastic pollution. UNEP reported last year that between 1950 and 2017, the world produced about 9.2 billion tons of plastic, of which the plastic recycling rate was less than 10%, and about 7 billion tons became plastic waste. It is estimated that by 2040, about 710 million tons of plastic waste will be abandoned into the natural environment every year. The US magazine scientific progress warned that in 2050, there will be more than 13 billion tons of plastic waste on earth, and the blue earth may become a “plastic planet”.
degradable plastic sector change
On March 3, the A-share degradable plastic sector moved up Guangdong Tengen Industrial Group Co.Ltd(003003) , Danhua Chemical Technology Co.Ltd(600844) limit, gem Henan Jindan Lactic Acid Technology Co.Ltd(300829) intraday rise of more than 12%, and Kingfa Sci.& Tech.Co.Ltd(600143) , Shandong Ruifeng Chemical Co.Ltd(300243) , etc. followed.
Degradable plastics refer to plastics whose properties can meet the use requirements, whose properties remain unchanged during the storage period, and which can degrade into environmentally harmless substances under natural environmental conditions after use. Therefore, it is also known as environmentally degradable plastics.
The use of degradable plastics is mainly divided into two fields. One is the field where ordinary plastics were originally used. In these fields, plastic products after use or consumption are difficult to collect and will cause harm to the environment, such as agricultural plastic film and disposable plastic packaging; The second is the field of replacing other materials with plastics. The use of degradable plastics in these fields can bring convenience, such as ball nails for golf courses and seedling fixing materials for tropical rain forest afforestation.
According to the data of the plastic recycling Professional Committee of China Plastics Association, the total consumption of plastics in China in 2020 was 90.877 million tons. This also means that degradable plastics are a huge blue ocean market.
A relevant person of a Chinese degradable plastic head enterprise told reporters that degradable plastics have a good prospect, but the release of production capacity needs policy guidance to help enterprises open the downstream market. After all, the cost of degradable plastics in the early stage is much higher than that of ordinary plastics.
In addition, the whole industry still faces challenges on the technical side. For example, the key material for the production of degradable material PLA is lactide, but most of China’s lactide technologies are purchased from abroad, and most of China’s related technologies are still in the stage of experimental research and development, the above-mentioned person said.
China has a wide alternative market
What is the future space for degradable plastics?
UNEP said that by 2040, the transformation to circular economy could reduce the amount of plastic discharged into the sea by more than 80%; Reduce the output of primary plastics by 55%; Save $70 billion for the government by 2040; Reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25%; And create 700000 additional jobs, which will be mainly concentrated in the countries of the global south.
Huatai Securities Co.Ltd(601688) believes that degradable plastics have a broad market in China, and PBAT / PLA is the main variety. According to the calculation, taking the data of 2018 as an example, the consumption of disposable plastics in China’s lunch boxes, plastic bags and other fields reaches 5.945 million tons. Assuming that the substitution ratio of 30%, the consumption of degradable plastics is close to 1.8 million tons. From the perspective of technical maturity and cost performance, PBAT / PLA are the main raw materials of soft (mostly used for plastic bags) / hard (mostly used for lunch boxes, etc.) products, and starch based plastics are mainly used for compounding. Compared with ordinary PE / PP / PS plastics, the price of PBAT / PLA is about 2-4 times that of ordinary PE / PP / PS plastics, so the demand mainly depends on policy promotion.
According to the statistics of Caixin securities, by the end of 2021, the production capacity of PLA in China was about 452000 tons. The total production capacity of PLA and PBAT planned to be constructed by 2025 exceeded 15 million tons, including about 5 million tons of PLA and more than 10 million tons of PBAT.
Sealand Securities Co.Ltd(000750) predicts that by 2025, China’s total market demand for degradable plastics will reach 4152300 tons, 9.23 times that of 2018. Calculated at a unit price of 20000 yuan / ton, the market space will be 83 billion yuan.
