Save plastic trash disaster:recycling fiber faces shuffle of the industry

Original by Niu Fang

Translated by Shen Da

In recent years, with the concept of green development and the basic national policy of conserving resources and protecting the environment, China speeds up the construction of a resource-saving and environment-friendly society, and forms a new pattern of harmonious development of man and nature. In many tasks of textile industry, it’s undoubtedly a must to create a recycling textile industry system and construct eco-textile.

General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: “Green development, in terms of its essence, is to solve the harmonious coexistence between man and nature.”

One important connotation of the harmony between man and nature is how human beings make good use of recyclable garbage with efficiency and high quality. Recycled polyester industry is a very interesting industry that could turn the waste of polyester bottles into treasure. In the big family of “green fibers”, sponsored by China Chemical Fiber Association (FFCA), there are 17 enterprises on the list, five of which are manufactures of recyclable chemical fiber.

Recently, our correspondent came to one of them--Longfu Recycling Energy Scientech Co., Ltd., to comprehensively understand the whole production process of recycling fiber, and also recognize the great contribution and significance of “green fiber” to human resources and environment.

From “white rubbish” to “multicolored carpet”

Longfu Recycling Energy Scientech Co., Ltd. is a low-carbon chemical fiber textile enterprises to keep energy saving and environmental protection, with the recycling of resources as the main business. With the green, smart and sustainable development concept,Longfu Recycling Energy has built the only one-stop circular economy industrial chain from the recycling of waste polyester, bottle cleaning and processing, to the textile weaving of arts and crafts. The extensive application of recycled polyester filament products in industrial and civil fields, leads the development of a number of renewable polyester blanket-oriented industrial clusters, including carpets, decorative fabrics,conveyor belts and clothing fabrics.

Recycled polyester filament is a kind of recycled fiber, and the so-called regeneration is to make the waste polyester into spinning after processing. At Longfu Recycling Energy, there were piles of raw materials like “mountains”, all of which were waste polyester bottle.

As one important force of China’s recycled polyester fiber industry, Longfu Recycling Energy Scientech Co., Ltd., insisted on energy-saving and environment-friendly development. Di Gangli, Deputy General Manager of the company, indicated: “With the feature of light and transparency, polyester has been the most important packing raw materials of bottled water and food. In recent years, the accumulated polyester bottles has reached tens of million of tons.If not recycling, it causes not only waste of resources,but also serious pollution of the environment. So the recycled polyester industry can be said to solve the problems of polyester recycling.”

Opportunities and challenges coexist

Although the recycled polyester industry has effectively solved the problem of white pollution on the earth, there were many problems with the continuous development of the industry. Di Gangli said: “In China’s Recycling Industry, there are more than 340 recycled polyester enterprises, and the production capacity of half of the enterprises was less than 30,000 tons, relying on low-cost competition and poor quality.In 2005, the output of recycled polyester was 530 tons,whose materials were mainly waste polyester bottles and waste blocks. So the external dependent degree was up to 40%.”

As Di Gangli said, China’s recycled polyester industry has high dependence on imports of raw materials. On July 27th, the General Office of the State Council promulgated a plan to adjust the master catalog of the imported solid waste before the end of July,and forbid to import raw materials such as waste plastics, unsorted waste paper and textile waste and other varieties, before the end of the year.

It’s pointed out that the ban on the import of related waste plastics is aimed at blocking the transfer of primary processing pollution to China. As the general recyclable solid waste is often doped with a large number of high-polluting waste and hazardous waste,so there is obvious environmental benefit to prohibit the import of such raw materials.

Di Gangli indicated that, raw material gap of recycled polyester would enlarge sharply after the prohibition, so in short term, there would be the phenomenon of bidding up prices.

For the recent development of the industry, Di Gangli said: “In view of the implementation of the most stringent environmental protection law, restrictions of policies and low operation of international crude oil, the domestic recycling industry will usher in reshuffle. The low-end areas with irregular management and low-cost competition would have to withdrawal from the market, while the modern green enterprises will be in vigorous development.”

The logo of “green fiber” will be the embodiment of a standard, and all the short-listed “green-fiber” enterprises are all in line with “green development” from raw materials to production.

Di Gangli put forward that, after market running for a while, renewable products and original products would achieve the value of balance, and the leaving recycling enterprises would be in branding and intensive development, which was undoubtedly an opportunity for the industry.

Therefore, although there are various problems in the development process of recycled polyester industry, the recycled polyester industry as the development trend will usher in a bright future. The domestic recycled polyester industry should firmly grasp the historical opportunity to expand industrial scale, so as to promote the industrialization and leapfrog development. Meanwhile, the listed enterprises of “green fibers” should set an example with high-quality development.