April 22nd is World Earth Day, and UN Secretary-General Guterres delivered a video address on the same day, calling on the international community to actively address the triple crisis of climate destruction, loss of nature and biodiversity, and environmental pollution and waste facing the planet. Taking care of the Earth and reducing the pollution of plastic waste cannot be achieved without the efforts of everyone.
Other statistics show that in 2020, China’s take-out market generated 17 billion orders, and each order requires an average of 3.44 lunch boxes, of which plastic lunch boxes account for nearly 70%. In addition, about 90% of the orders require the use of plastic bags. The take-out industry is undoubtedly one of the main demanders of plastic packaging, and the problem of plastic pollution from take-out packaging has come up. One study showed that the Chinese takeaway industry generated 1.6 million tons of plastic waste in 2020.
People’s Daily published a report titled “Low-carbon life, with you and me” in its ecology section on April 26th, 2022, which pointed out that a market base should be provided for biodegradable tableware.
Plastic disposable tableware and plastic garbage
I often order takeaways when I am busy at work, although I choose “no tableware” when I place an order. According to the China Environmental Protection Industry Association, from January to June 2021, the use of plastic disposable tableware will be reduced by about 885 million sets in the restaurant and take-out sector.
The data released by the Royal Statistical Society shows that the global proportion of unrecycled plastic waste is as high as 90.5%. And in such a large amount of plastic waste, only 9% is recycled, and only 12% is incinerated. Most of the remaining plastic will be landfilled or flow into the ocean, with degradation time up to 400-500 years to become harmless to nature, the biological chain of substances.
What are the dangers of plastic disposable tableware?
As we all know, the white pollution caused by plastic disposable tableware has seriously affected the quality of life of human beings and the health of the earth, and the above figures are alarming to our eyes. So, what are the specific hazards of plastic disposable tableware? Let us outline the following two major categories.
Plastic disposable tableware is hazardous to health
Plastic disposable tableware contains toxic substances (such as foaming agents), which will dissolve at higher temperatures and be absorbed by food, thus causing trace pollution to the human body and damaging health with long-term deposition (if harmful substances exceed the standard, it is even more harmful); fluorescent substances and plasticizers added during the production process have the potential risk of causing cancer.
Plastic disposable tableware affects ecological nature
- Foam disposable tableware consumes a large amount of blowing agent, which is an ozone-depleting substance, during the production process, thus endangering the ozone layer, which is the umbrella of the earth.
- Plastic disposable tableware is not recyclable and cannot be naturally decomposed, which is prone to cause serious environmental pollution. From the data released on the World Environment Day website last year: the world produces more than 330 million tons of plastic every year, 500 billion plastic bags are used every year, and about 1 million plastic bottles are sold every minute. Now there are about 10-20 million tons of plastic garbage in the ocean every year, which is equivalent to a whole truckload of garbage dumped into the sea every minute, and at least 1 billion marine creatures lose their lives due to plastic garbage every year.
The alternative to plastic disposable tableware —— Pulp Molded Tableware
Nowadays, in the face of such a huge daily consumption of plastic take-out containers, compared with the degree of environmental consumption, the source of reduction, pollution reduction, and recycling are all important. Pulp molded disposable tableware in the global environmental protection policy of plastic ban, become a popular alternative product. In recent years, it has leaped into the public eye, gaining the attention of the market and consumers.
We at UV Tableware are proud to be part of the “Environmental Guard”, our team is committed to low-carbon behavior and helping to protect the planet!
What are the advantages of pulp molded disposable tableware?
The table below briefly outlines the benefits of pulp molded disposable tableware in several categories, UV Tableware primarily produces bagasse pulp disposable tableware, you can click here to learn why to use bagasse pulp disposable tableware.
| 1 | Made from annual sugarcane, reed, straw, and wheat straw plant fiber pulp, which is a natural plant fiber, green, non-toxic and non-hazardous. |
| 2 | Microwave or oven heatable, refrigerator freezable for freshness. |
| 3 | Can resist 120 ℃ hot oil, 100 ℃ hot water, and no deformation leakage. |
| 4 | Products using renewable resources, to protect the environment, are more environmentally friendly. |
| 5 | Under composting conditions 45-90 days to complete the full degradation, no pollution to the environment generated, and no harm to terrestrial organisms, or marine organisms. After degradation, 82% of the composition is organic matter, which can be used as fertilizer for land use, taking natural materials and returning to nature. |
As green packaging, pulp molded disposable tableware can be recycled, reused, naturally degraded, and does not cause harm to the human body and the environment during the whole production cycle of the product. Undoubtedly, pulp molded disposable tableware because of its “environmentally friendly” material characteristics, has been from the central to local government departments and domestic and foreign investors at all levels to pay more attention, so that it can get a strong impetus for faster development.
Plant fiber pulp food packaging products with its wide range of raw materials, non-polluting, recyclable, easy to degrade, renewable superiority in the current domestic several types of food utensils food packaging alternatives stand out and are gradually accepted by the use of units and consumers, a leap to replace the current popularity in the domestic and international markets of various types of disposable foam plastic food packaging products.
With more and more countries explicitly banning EPS products and encouraging the use of biodegradable pulp molded products, the demand for biodegradable food and beverage utensils in domestic and international markets has risen sharply.
Green food packaging is a major revolution of health and environmental protection in the 21st century, a major initiative of ecological protection, pulp molded tableware is undoubtedly a sunrise industry with a broad development prospect.
UV Tableware is committed to doing a good job of each bagasse pulp molded disposable tableware to ensure that every tableware produced by our factory and sold to the market is hygienic and environmentally friendly.
For more details, please contact us for an in-depth discussion, thank you.
