Disposable lunch boxes came into being in 1981s. At that time, they solved many inconveniences in people's dining, and were deeply loved by people because of their advantages of convenience, quickness, cleanness and prevention of spreading infectious diseases. Coupled with its low price, restaurants and catering industries have adopted disposable lunch boxes, and the overwhelming disposable lunch boxes have suddenly become a beautiful landscape in urban life. It can be said that it is the product of the rapid development of fast food industry in China. At present, there are many polyethylene foam production lines for disposable plastic tableware and other products in China, with an annual output of more than 7 billion plastic lunch boxes, with a monthly output of 61,111-81,111 tons. Although the production of disposable lunch boxes is a revolutionary breakthrough in the dining industry, we cannot ignore the shortcomings. Disposable lunch boxes do a lot of harm to human beings: First, they reduce the environmental quality. Most plastic products and disposable articles are thrown away immediately after use, so plastic garbage fills all kinds of places and flutters with the wind in parks, stations, cinemas, scenic spots and railways, which hinders the appearance of the city. Second, it pollutes the agricultural ecological environment. Plastic is a polymer compound, which is neither corroded by microorganisms nor easily decomposed naturally. The degradation cycle is generally 211-311 years, and toxic substances will be produced during the explanation process. The plastic waste remaining in the soil will cause the land to harden, the groundwater is difficult to infiltrate, the soil is barren and salinized, and the grain yield will be greatly reduced. Third, it can also endanger the health of human beings and organisms. Because toxic additives are added in the production of plastic products, the toxic additives will be released when plastic garbage is stored for a long time, polluting the atmosphere and water resources and endangering the safety of human beings and organisms. Fourthly, the raw material of disposable lunch boxes is petroleum, which belongs to non-renewable resources, and the waste of resources is serious. Moreover, the disposal cost of plastic lunch boxes is too high, and the use value is reduced. From the above discussions, it can be seen that it is seriously harmful to human beings.
With the development of science and technology, people's environmental awareness has been constantly improved, and the call for banning "white pollution" has also been higher and higher. Some large and medium-sized cities have issued prohibition orders, and some countries have used many methods to ban the use of disposable lunch boxes, some of which mainly include administrative and technical methods:
There are three main administrative methods: one is to strengthen management and deal with them centrally. From the second half of 1994, the railway department began to divide the sections into sections, and some trains used bagged garbage, and it was forbidden to throw it outside, with remarkable results. Practice has proved that the key to control "white pollution" is management. The second is to disable. Hangzhou city first adopted this law, and since 1995, it has issued a circular to ban disposable plastic lunch boxes. Wuhan, Guangzhou, Dalian and other cities have followed suit, but because the substitutes are paper products or degradable plastic products, the quality can not meet the requirements and cannot compete with them, so there are many violators. If we only rely on administrative orders without considering economic leverage, it will be difficult to operate and the effect will not be good. The third is compulsory recycling. Clean waste plastic products can be recycled, such as granulation, oil refining, paint making, building materials, etc., but only if the waste plastic products are classified and recycled before entering the garbage. This conforms to the principles of reduction, recycling and harmlessness, which can not only avoid pollution but also make full use of resources, reduce the amount of garbage disposal and save land, and achieve certain economic benefits. This is a way to treat both the symptoms and the root causes. At present, most developed countries adopt the method of recycling, and Beijing and Tianjin also adopt this method, which has achieved results. There are two kinds of technical methods: one is to replace plastic with paper. Cartons made of natural plant fibers will rot half a month after being exposed to water, and become fertilizer when buried in the ground. However, the new problem is that a large number of papermaking will cause water pollution, and the products can not compete with plastic products in performance and cost. The second is to use degradable plastics. Additives, such as starch, cellulose, biodegradable agents, etc., are added in the production process of plastic products, which can be degraded after three months of use, but the single-row fragments cannot be degraded, and pollution still exists, resulting in secondary pollution and food consumption. Because the fragments contain additives, they cannot be recycled. In 1981s, this method was carried out in western countries, but it was abandoned due to technical problems, and then it was mainly recycled. Finally, it was replaced by plant fiber. The birth of China packaging was a revolution in the world, and it will become the first choice to eradicate "white pollution" and wait to be popularized.
Similarly, China's Environmental Protection Bureau, Ministry of Construction, Ministry of Railways and National Tourism Administration recently jointly issued "Several Opinions on Strengthening the Management of Plastic Packaging Waste in Key Traffic Trunks, Watershed and Scenic Spots", which quickly changed the current situation of "white pollution" in key traffic trunks, watersheds and scenic spots, protected the natural landscape and ecological environment, and put forward ten prevention measures. The ten prevention and control measures are as follows:
1. Strengthen the leadership over the prevention and control of "white pollution", and implement the principle of "main leaders personally, negative general principles, and implementation at different levels. Urban construction, transportation, railways, tourism and environmental protection departments should do their respective duties and strengthen the management of plastic packaging waste.
second, it is forbidden to use non-degradable disposable foamed plastic tableware in railway stations and passenger trains, passenger ships and tourist boats sailing in inland waters such as the Yangtze River and Taihu Lake.
3. put an end to littering and accumulation of plastic packaging wastes and other solid wastes in rivers, lakes and along the coast, and be responsible for organizing and cleaning them up under the leadership of the local people's government in the jurisdiction within three months.
4. It is forbidden to dump garbage along the railway, along the Yangtze River and along the Taihu Lake basin. Under the leadership of the local people's government, it will be responsible for organizing clean-up and comprehensive management within six months.
5. Transportation departments at all levels should strengthen the management of ship garbage. All kinds of ships should be equipped with enough garbage storage containers, and all kinds of garbage should be classified and collected, and arranged side by side as garbage receiving facilities.
VI. The competent departments of tourist attractions (scenic spots) at all levels are responsible for supervising and inspecting the management of plastic waste in the scenic spots (scenic spots) under their jurisdiction.
7. Railway departments at all levels should consolidate the achievements made, further improve the garbage storage facilities of trains and stations and strictly manage them.
8. Urban construction and environmental sanitation departments at all levels should do a good job in receiving and handling the garbage from shipping, railways and tourist attractions in accordance with the principles set out in the Regulations on Urban Appearance and Environmental Sanitation promulgated by the State Council, and must not pile the collected garbage on rivers, lakes and shores. It is forbidden to set up landfills and dumps along the waters.
nine, local environmental protection departments at all levels should strengthen the unified supervision and management of the prevention and control of environmental pollution by plastic packaging waste under the leadership of the local government.
11. All regions and departments should widely publicize the harm of "white pollution", popularize the knowledge of preventing and controlling plastic packaging waste, and raise the awareness of environmental protection of the whole people. It is necessary to set up billboards and bulletin boards in trains, ships and tourist attractions. Newspapers, radio, television and other news media should carry out publicity.
There are also many achievements in the influence of lunch boxes in China, such as: biodegradable technology, which is the most successful of all technologies. This technology mainly uses starch as the main raw material, adds annual plant cellulose and special additives, and processes it into biodegradable fast food boxes by chemical and physical methods. Because starch is a biodegradable natural polymer, it can be decomposed into glucose, carbon dioxide and water under the action of microorganisms, and there is no pollution to the environment. In addition, the material mixed with it is also a fully degradable material, so the fast food box made of this material has excellent degradation performance. It was found that the samples began to be moldy in the compost state for five days, and the samples were integrated with compost at ten days, and the samples lost their color and shape before detection, and all of them turned into water and carbon dioxide at forty days. In addition, its raw materials are widely available, such as corn, potato, sweet potato, cassava, etc. And the price is low, and the cost of each biodegradable fast food box produced by this material is only 1.18-1.21 yuan; There is no pollution in the production process; The additive is non-toxic and harmless edible bio-gum, so the product can be further developed and used as feed after use, which has the effect of recycling.
From now on, we should ban disposable lunch boxes and use starch lunch boxes to provide a solid foundation for completely eradicating "white pollution". Make due contributions to improving and enhancing China's environmental protection.