Saving Measures
United Kingdom
Facing the serious challenge of the earth being polluted by plastic. Countries have stepped up their efforts to recycle plastic. Through the investigation data. It found that there were three main categories of plastic treatment in different countries. Plastic that can be recycled is firmly recycled. Some plastics are incinerated to recover their thermal energy. Finally, for some serious pollution can not be recycled plastic waste landfill treatment. However, there are many ways and regulations to deal with plastics that vary from country to country. Take China and the UK as examples.
While actively recycling plastic waste, the British began to explore the recycling of plastic waste. British scientists have created a mutated enzyme that breaks down plastic drink bottles, a breakthrough that could make it possible to recycle them and help tackle a global plastic pollution crisis, The Guardian website reported. Even more surprising, the mutated enzyme was able to degrade not only PET, but PEF (polyethylene), a PET substitute.
"The discovery by the team of John McGeehan, professor of biology at the University of Portsmouth, is an important milestone in the history of human conservation." Professor Nilay Shah, a chemical engineer at Imperial College London, said it would be a very useful technology to support recycling and recycling of plastics. "Although there is still a long way to go before these enzymes can be widely used in the recycling industry, this discovery is significant and an exciting step forward in humanity's fight against plastic pollution."[3]
About 13 billion plastic drink bottles are used by UK consumers each year, and more than 3 billion of these are burned, buried or thrown away, causing secondary pollution. In a bid to reduce the harm caused by plastic waste, the UK government has announced plans to eliminate "avoidable" plastic waste by 2042.
China
Chemical recycling uses pyrolysis technology to degrade and recycle waste plastics into reusable fuels (gasoline, diesel, etc.) or chemical raw materials (ethylene, propylene, etc.).
Energy recovery, that is, heat energy recovery by burning, is mainly applied to waste plastics with serious pollution that cannot be recovered and utilized by traditional physical and chemical methods. High temperature gas is generated by waste incineration for power generation. But incineration will produce hydrogen chloride, dioxins, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and other toxic gases, causing secondary air pollution. It is necessary to develop advanced green high temperature incineration equipment to realize safe and clean incineration.
China attaches great importance to the prevention and control of waste plastic pollution. In 1995, it promulgated the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution by Solid Waste, which stipulates that solid waste should be reduced, made harmless and recycled. On September 9, 2019, the 10th meeting of the Reform Committee of China deliberated and adopted the Opinions on Further Strengthening the Control of Plastic Pollution. On January 16, 2020, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Ecology and Environment jointly issued the Opinions on Further Strengthening the Control of Plastic Pollution, explicitly proposing to standardize the recycling and utilization of plastic waste.
China follows strict recycling methods. Plastic recycling can be divided into physical recovery, chemical recovery and energy recovery. Physical recycling doesn't change plastic chemical composition, mainly by collecting, rough classification selection, easy cleaning and broken, melt processing such as the preparation of recycled plastic products, widely used in a single material of thermoplastic plastic waste recycling, such as recycling waste polyester bottle preparation of polyester fiber, waste polystyrene foam preparation of decorative products, etc
[3] William J. Brennan, Ph.D. Acting Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere [Accessed: 14th November 2021].