The Return Of ‘White pollution’

By Yin pumin

Ban lifted on polystyrene tableware stirs controversy

As an office worker on Jinbao Street, one of the most bustling business areas in Beijing, Su Wei is accustomed to bringing his lunches to the office in polystyrene boxes.

“My colleagues and I all eat food from such boxes,” Su said, unaware that there had ever been a ban on polystyrene bowls and takeout boxes.

“I didn’t realize there was a ban because many restaurants in Beijing are still using polystyrene boxes and have been doing so for years,” Su said.

However, after being in force for more than 14 years, the ban was lifted on May 1, raising concerns that the move could result in food safety and environmental pollution problems.

The State Economic and Trade Commission decreed in January 1999 that polystyrene tableware would be phased out, with a formal prohibition on production beginning in 2001. Once the country’s top economic policymaking body, the commission was dismantled and its responsibilities were assumed by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) in 2003.

The ban was meant to curb a problem of “white pollution,” a term used to describe the ubiquity of the discarded disposable containers. The railway sector, constituting China’s main public transport facilities, banned polystyrene tableware and began using biodegradable tableware in 1995.

In 2005 and 2011, the NDRC again put polystyrene tableware under its list of banned products on the Industrial Restructuring Catalog.

However, on February 16, polystyrene tableware was removed from the NDRC’s updated list of banned products. Dining from polystyrene containers is legal again, but has anyone taken notice?

The rationale

The move taken by the NDRC raised a lot of controversy among insiders and the public.Many warn it will bring horrible results to the country’s environment and public health.

Dong Jinshi, Secretary General of the International Food Packaging Association, said that the NDRC’s move would invite even more production from formerly illegal manufacturers.

According to Dong, despite the 14-year government ban, polystyrene tableware was still being produced and sold in many places, as it is much cheaper than biodegradable ones.

In China, around 100 million polystyrene boxes are still being produced every year, Dong estimated.

According to Dong’s association, about 2 million disposable food containers are used daily in Beijing, and polystyrene packaging accounts for 20 percent. Most of this packaging is used in low-end restaurants such as roadside food stalls.

“The situation might get worse once these products are officially approved by the government,” Dong said.

In response to public discontent, the NDRC published a statement on March 20, listing five reasons to justify why the ban was lifted.

The statement said that the NDRC had asked the National Institute of Nutrition and Food Safety,under the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, to test polystyrene containers and the results showed that they are “compliant with national food wrapping standards.”

The commission also said that polystyrene tableware could be recycled to make construction materials, paints and stationery, and that many other countries, including the United States, Japan,and member states of the European Union, have been using these products for years.

Polystyrene tableware is thin and lightweight,so it doesn’t require too many resources to produce, according to the commission. Its figures show that each polystyrene box uses only 5 to 6 grams of plastic materials to make, whereas a nonpolystyrene box requires 20 to 30 grams. A paper takeout box costs more than 1 yuan ($0.16) to make, while a polystyrene one only costs 0.3 yuan($0.05).

The NDRC statement said that fewer people are likely to discard the plastic containers on the street or along railway lines because the public now has a better sense of environmental protection than it did 14 years ago.

“Currently, related agencies are working out a system for production license management, a list of criteria for enterprises that are interested in entering the industry, a recycling regime, as well as regulatory measures,” the statement added.

Following the statement, some trade organizations, including the China National Light Industry Council, the China Plastics Processing Industry Association and the China Packaging Federation,expressed their support for lifting the ban.

Cao Jian, vice President of the China Plastics Processing Industry Association, was quoted by the China Chemical Industry News as saying that disposable polystyrene tableware is a cost-effective product with oil-resistant, water-resistant and thermal insulating properties. The problem of pollution,he added, could be solved by better recycling management and technology.

Backlash

Since the cost of biodegradable tableware is 10 times higher than that of disposable polystyrene tableware, the lifting of the ban will have a huge impact on the biodegradable tableware market,news portal Chinanews.com reported.

Yang Weihe, a packaging expert with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, is concerned that lifting the ban on polystyrene tableware will lead to a big increase in the amount of plastic waste.

“An effective recycling system should be established before the ban is lifted,” Yang said.

According to Mao Da, a co-founder of a Beijingbased independent environmental think tank, the decomposition of polystyrene tableware takes a long time and could therefore harm the ecosystem.

“The plastics just become fragmented into small pieces that go into the ocean with the rivers,”Mao said. “They will harm the health of marine creatures such as turtles, which may mistakenly eat the plastics.”

Dong said that the production process also causes problems.

“You can smell a pungent odor when you go near, not even into, a plant producing polystyrene boxes,” Dong said. “But the plants just leave the doors open and let the smell stain the clean air.”

Disposable polystyrene tableware should be included in the list of items that companies must recycle under China’s Circular Economy Promotion Law, which entered into force in 2009, Mao said.

“The producers will be responsible for recycling any wasted polystyrene boxes they make,” Mao said. “This is the most effective way to limit pollution produced by plastic tableware.”

BACK ON THE MARKET:Disposable polystyrene tableware produced in Shanghai is ready for delivery on May 4

Furthermore, Dong also warned that many other safety issues are related to polystyrene products.

According to him, food packaging made of polystyrene is non-toxic as long as it is produced and used properly.

“But the problem is that much of the polystyrene food packaging sold and used in the market cannot meet quality standards, and some is even made of recycled plastic waste that has been used to pack refrigerators and televisions,” Dong said.

Moreover, Chinese prefer hot food, which might cause polystyrene packaging to leak toxins,he said.

“Polystyrene is quite soft and will be reshaped and release toxic chemical elements when being heated in microwaves or if it contains beverages and food heated to over 70 degrees Celsius,” Dong said, noting that long-term ingestion of the substance can harm human health.

In 2009, some 10 employees of a small hair salon in Shanghai’s Xuhui District ordered takeout food from a nearby restaurant. They placed the dishes, which were in polystyrene boxes, in a microwave to warm them up. But even before they took a bite, the workers were struck by violent dizziness and nausea.

“Toxic substances released by heated plastic boxes seriously affected people’s health,” explained Fang Bangjiang, chief physician at the emergency room of the hospital that accepted the patients.“The poisons hit the patients’ central nervous system, so they felt light-headed and hard to breathe.”

If heated polystyrene does produce dioxins as some Chinese media reports have claimed, the heating of the once-banned food boxes could even cause cancer, he added.

The patients recovered within a few hours, but acute poisoning like this could result in worse consequences, Fang said.

According to Dong, foaming agents used in the production process are combustible and are thus dangerous.

If ignited, he said, the boxes produce toxic black vapors that jeopardize the health of people working in plants producing polystyrene tableware.

“Foaming agents areflammable. They could cause accidents in dry closed environments prone to static electricity,” Dong said in one of his Sina blog posts. “But not all production plants can afford humidifiers.”

He said that fire accidents caused by foaming agents had already occurred in both Beijing and Shanghai. One person, Dong said, was killed in a Beijing plant and the plant was punished with fines of more than 1 million yuan ($163,000). ■