China will ban the use of disposable plastic packaging bags, tableware and straws on domestic flights starting next year, the Civil Aviation Administration of China said Wednesday.
Airports with an annual throughput of at least 2 million passengers will also stop providing such products next year, and the ban will be extended to all airports and international passenger flights in 2023, the administration said.
The ban was part of a five-year plan released by the administration to control plastic pollution. By 2025, the consumption of disposable non-degradable plastic in the civil aviation industry will decline sharply from the 2020 level, according to the plan.
Airlines in the country have already started the green transition, with some companies replacing disposable plastic tableware with recyclable ones and piloting on-board garbage sorting.
An Phat Holdings, a leading environmentally friendly plastic group in Vietnam with a closed business ecosystem, has just received the investment certificate for its PBAT manufacturing mega-project, An Phat PBAT. Simultaneously, the group has announced a contract with Technip Energies, a world-leading engineering and technology player, for the Front End Engineering Design (FEED) bidding package of the plant and that its patents on green material creation have been granted intellectual property rights.
According to the latest update on the An Phat PBAT material manufacturing plant, the Group (APH) has signed the FEED services contract with Technip Energies.
Along with this, the world-leading contractor would take on the Front End Engineering Design of APH’s leading green material facility. The FEED services package will be handled by a subsidiary of Technip Energies in Southeast Asia, Technip Engineering Thailand, with support from Technip Zimmber GmbH based in Germany and is slated for completion in the fourth quarter of 2021.
This is the first time Technip Energies teams up with a business in green material production in Vietnam. In the past, the group reaped success at a string of sizable key projects across Vietnam like the Binh Son Refining and Petrochemical Plant complex in Quang Ngai province’s Dung Quat Economic Zone, the Nghi Son petroleum complex in Thanh Hoa province, the Long Son petrochemical complex and Phu My fertilizer plant in Vung Tau city, and more.
“By choosing a well-known design partner, APH wants to bring An Phat PBAT on par with the world’s leading green material manufacturing plants,” said Dinh Xuan Cuong, Vice chairman and CEO of An Phat Holdings. “Through big investment into technology, materials, and human resources, we want to prove that not only developed nations can have a strong green material supply chain.”
Green materials of An Phat PBAT will be exported and support its production and commercial needs
The strategic co-operation between An Phat Holdings and Technip Energies attests to the former’s ambitions to construct a green material manufacturing mega-plant empowered by cutting-edge technology and production lines.
In addition to shaking hands with a global technology player, An Phat Holdings have also made strides to facilitate the project. Particularly, APH has fostered research, striving to seize core technology on green material production. Last month, APH registered its PBAT and PBS green material patients for intellectual property protection, becoming the sole company in possession of these production technologies in Vietnam.
Significantly, with support from Technip Energies, APH’s PBAT and PBS materials achieved excellent results at the testing line of Technip Zimmer GmbH (Germany), proving to be of equal quality with materials provided by leaders in the global materials industry such as BASF and Novamont.
Another huge leap forward is that after the completion of necessary procedures, APH has received the investment certificate of its An Phat PBAT mega-project at Dinh Vu Industrial Park from the Haiphong IP Management Authority. With an annual capacity of 30,000 tonnes, the mega-plant is slated to kick off construction late this year and will come on stream in early 2024 after 24 months of construction.
Despite adverse impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic, APH is working to accelerate the pace of its An Phat PBAT mega-project. Empowered by state-of-the art technology, the plant aims to churn out world-class items reaching the highest quality standards. Once the PBAT manufacturing plant comes online, Vietnam will officially become part of the global green material supply chain.
Recently, the Government issued the Decision No. 1316/QD-TTg approving the scheme for strengthening management of plastic waste in Vietnam which shows the Government’s stronger determination in reducing and replacing plastic bags with environmentally friendly products. In this situation, many Vietnamese enterprises have taken strategic steps with intending to accompany the Government to implement the set goals.
The Decision No. 1316/QĐ-TTg of the Government emphasizes the target of using 100% environmentally friendly plastic bags and packaging at shopping centers and supermarkets for domestic purposes as replacement for non-biodegradable plastic bags from 2025 onwards. It is necessary to guarantee to collect, reuse, recycle and process 85% of generated plastic wastes as well as reduce 50% marine plastic wastes. 100% of tourist attraction and tourist accommodation establishment and hotels strive not to use non-biodegradable plastic bags and single-use plastic products.
This is also a drastic action to follow the Directive No. 33/CT-TTg issued by the Government on strengthening management, reuse, recycling, treatment, and reduction of plastic wastes; require thoroughly to reduce the use of single-use plastic products.
Accordingly, one of the urgent missions and solutions at this moment to implement the scheme is to strengthen research and production of environmentally friendly products. The Government also requires enterprises and organizations to strengthen researches, investments and development of technology to produce eco-friendly products to replace plastic items. They have to investigate, design and manufacture plastic packaging and products which minimize the norm of plastic materials/products. Simultaneously, enterprises enhance the capacity of key laboratories to satisfy the requirements of research, testing, evaluation and quality certification of packaging products meeting Vietnam’s regulations and replace plastic products and biodegradable bags.
Vietnamese businesses took the initiative before the Government scheme
Recently, a large number of Vietnamese businesses have shifted to research and produce environmentally friendly products to replace disposable plastic products. However, most of the manufacturers in this field face difficulties in raw materials when they have to import materials from abroad, produce in Vietnam and then distribute them back to the market. This increases the production cost and force them to depend on the supplier and transport partners.
Therefore, the problem of the self-contained supply chain of raw materials is a huge challenge and obstacle for many Vietnamese enterprises in this field.
While many businesses are perplexed about this issue, An Phat Holdings has been preparing to invest in building a green material factory called An Phat PBAT Manufacturing Plant worth US$100 million with the largest scale in Southeast Asia, proactively supplying raw materials and producing green products to replace disposable products.
An Phat Holdings also determines the immediate objective, which is also a sustainable development goal, is to be proactive in manufacturing of raw materials, thereby reducing production costs and at the same time implement the plan to bring Vietnam’s green materials to the world.
PBAT An Phat Manufacturing Plant construction project has been officially granted the investment registration certificate by Hai Phong Department of Planning and Investment.
AnEco wood sawdust straws of An Phat Holdings are made from 100% compostable materials.
An Phat Holdings currently owns the proprietary core technology for producing raw materials in South Korea, has mobilized capital, human resources and cooperated with leading partners from Germany to implement the project. This is expected to be an important step for Vietnamese enterprises in creating their own supply chains, thoroughly solving the issue of raw materials.
With this plant, An Phat Holdings will use the most modern production line system to manufacture the best quality products. The plant is designed with advanced automation percentage. Experts can operate from a remote control room, ensure the accuracy and safety.
An Phat Holdings’ factory produces thin monolayer film packaging and AnEco’s compostable products.
When the plant puts into operation, 70% of products would be used to serve the production needs of this Group, 30% will be used for trade in target markets such as the U.S., Europe, Canada, South Korea, and Australia, etc.
The completion of the PBAT project will help An Phat Holdings complete its ecosystem, officially bringing this corporation directly into the global green supply chain. Moreover, having the source of raw materials will help this group reduce the cost of environmentally friendly products, which is always a barrier in accessing the majority of customers.
On July 29, 2021, An Phat Holdings (APH) held an online event to reviewbusiness activities for the first 6 months of the year and review plans for the last 6 months of the year. This is an annual activity to assess the operation, production and business situation in the first and second quarters to propose plans to increase production in the second half of the year.
Attending the online event was Mr. Pham Anh Duong, Chairman of An Phat Holdings and the Board of Directors of APH and member companies in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh, Hai Duong, Hung Yen, Yen Bai etc.
In the context of complicated developments of the Covid-19 epidemic, APH held the ceremony online, ensuring the prevention and control of the epidemic.
APH held the event online
Reviewing the business performance in the first half of 2021, the Group assessed business and production activities for the first 6 months and plan to implement key projects of the year.
In particular, the Group’s Board of Directors emphasized a number of important activities in the past time such as the cooperation with Actis – the British Investment Fund in the field of industrial real estate, preparing for the construction the of PBAT An Phat manufacturing plant, boost export activities to the US, Europe… in the context of the world economy has gradually recovered.
Especially, in the context of complexity caused by Covid-19 and the fact that freight costs are rising in the world, the Group has still achieved positive results in both revenue and profit. The Group’s Board of Directors commended and awarded three member companies with the best achievements, namely An Phat Bioplastics, An Phat Complex and An Thanh Bicsol. The Board of Directors of the Group expressed their confidence in the leadership team of the subsidiaries and employees, encouraging all employees to strive for the best and putting more efforts in the coming period.
Mr. Pham Van Tuan (right), Deputy CEO of APH, General Director of An Phat Complex received flower from Mr. Dinh Xuan Cuong – Vice Chairman, CEO of APH
Ms. Dao Thi Bich (left), Standing Deputy General Director on behalf of An Thanh Bicsol received flower from Mr. Dinh Xuan Cuong, Vice Chairman, CEO of APH
In the plan for the last 6 months of the year, the Board of Directors requests that all subsidiaries focus on production and business activities to achieve the set targets, and at the same time ensure maximum safety for production and employees, strengthen the plan to vaccinate employees for Covid-19 prevention… This is the key for the Group’s success in 2021 and to set the stage for 2022-2023.
On 31 May the EU Commission published the long awaited and delayed SUP guidelines, which aim to support Member States in the implementation of the Single-Use Plastic (SUP) Directive at national level by 3 July 2021.
The EU Commission also published a Q&A on the application of SUP rules, as it can be expected that a disruptive and non-harmonised implementation will occur within the 27 EU Member States.
It also published the Implementing Act and annex documents for reporting data on fishing gear placed on the market and waste fishing gear collected in Member States.
You can access the guidelines through the following links:
The Thailand Board of Investment (BOI) said on May 27 it has approved NatureWorks Asia Pacific Co.,Ltd.’s application to invest more than 15 billion baht (around USD490 million) in a project to produce Polylactic Acid (PLA).
The Thailand Board of Investment (BOI) said on May 27 that it has approved NatureWorks Asia Pacific Co.,Ltd.’s application to invest more than 15 billion baht (around USD490 million) in a project to produce Polylactic Acid (PLA), a low-carbon-footprint polymer derived from agricultural feed stocks, reflecting Thailand’s attraction to foreign investors as a bioplastics production base.
NatureWorks’ plant will produce approximately 75,000 tons of PLA per year, the BOI said. The PLA resin is used to make biodegradable goods ranging from compostable food containers, to filament for 3D printing, hygiene masks, and household appliances.
“This project demonstrates once again Thailand’s leadership in the ASEAN region when it comes to the bioplastics value chain,” said Ms. Duangjai Asawachintachit, Secretary General of the BOI. “Our strong agricultural base offers the required raw materials, while our logistics networks and strategic location enable companies to realize the full potential of their investment.”
The plant will be located at the Nakhon Sawan Biocomplex, a project established in line with the country’s BCG concept (for Bio-Circular-Green economic activities), some 200 kilometers north of Bangkok. NatureWorks Asia Pacific is a wholly owned subsidiary of US-based NatureWorks LLC, a leading global producer of PLA. The company’s PLA is marketed under the Ingeo trademark.
From 2015 to March of this year, the BOI has approved a total of 21 projects in the bioplastic value chain, from upstream to downstream, with a combined investment value of over 31 billion baht. Most of these projects have already entered production.
Aggressive “Roadmap to 2025” refocuses on proactive efforts to boost plastics recycling and to accelerate the transition to a circular economy for plastics.
Launched in August 2020, the The U.S. Plastics Pact is a consortium led by The Recycling Partnership and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) as part of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s global Plastics Pact network, which unites a holistic ecosystem of cross-industry stakeholders behind a common vision and national strategy to address plastic waste at its source by 2025. Dozens of stakeholders known as U.S. Pact Activators are involved.
On June 15 the U.S. Plastics Pact released a new and aggressive “Roadmap to 2025” it believes will help reduce plastic waste in the environment and create a circular economy for plastics in the United States by 2025. It’s supported by nearly 100 corporations, start-ups, research entities, NGOs, universities, and state and local governments across the plastics packaging value chain and includes mandatory reporting and specific timeframes in order to realize meaningful and targeted outcomes for a circular economy for plastics.
The Roadmap’s goals:
Define a list of packaging to be designated as problematic or unnecessary by 2021 and take measures to eliminate them by 2025.
100% of plastic packaging will be reusable, recyclable, or compostable by 2025.
By 2025, undertake ambitious actions to effectively recycle or compost 50% of plastic packaging.
By 2025, the average recycled content or responsibly sourced bio-based content in plastic packaging will be 30%.
The U.S. Pact Roadmap is designed to advance these goals and measure progress through annual reporting. As well, it is considered a “living” document that can be adjusted.
“The current state of U.S. infrastructure, coupled with the lack of incentives to utilize recycled content in plastic packaging, have put immense strain on the value chain,” says Emily Tipaldo, Executive Director, The U.S. Plastics Pact. “The Roadmap is designed to help U.S. industry leaders act on the significant, systemwide change needed to realize a circular economy for plastics by 2025. The timeframe is short, and the workload is immense, but if we choose to do nothing, the visions of a circular economy across the US will give way to the status quo. We look forward to working with all our Activators to drive this critical change.”
U.S. Plastics Pact
One of the Pact’s Activators is the National Association for PET Container Resources. NAPCOR tracks and reports on the recovery of PET bottles in its annual PET Recycling Report, which has hovered around 30% for the past decade.
“PET has performance properties that not only make it an excellent material for bottles and containers, but lends itself to being recycled over and over again,” states Darrel Collier, NAPCOR Executive Director. “The U.S. Plastics Pact recycling goal of 50% is ambitious, but not impossible. Globally, PET has a recycling rate in excess of 50%. To achieve the ambitious recycling goal here in the US, it is imperative that we think differently about collection, including embracing well designed incentivized collection programs.”
Other stakeholders’ responses.
Here’s what other stakeholders from suppliers to brands and others are saying:
“To meaningfully address the plastic waste crisis in the United States, we must unite the critical stakeholders — industry leaders, waste management systems, and policymakers — under a cohesive action plan. The Roadmap will be the key for setting a national strategy that reaches our set targets and measures our progress in a consistent, transparent manner.” — Erin Simon, Head, Plastic Waste and Business at World Wildlife Fund
“Amcor is committed to creating responsible packaging that is recycled and reused. Our innovation is designing more and more of our packaging to be recycled and using more recycled content, but we need progress on infrastructure and consumer participation too. That is why we are proud to support the rollout of the U.S. Plastics Pact Roadmap – which shows how cooperation across the value chain can help us solve the problem of waste in the environment.” — David Clark, Amcor VP of Sustainability
“Eliminating waste from our packaging is a top priority for Clorox. We also recognize that to accelerate our collective efforts toward a world without plastic waste, we need stakeholders across the value chain to collaborate, and U.S. Pact’s Roadmap is a blueprint for making that happen. When the Roadmap succeeds, we succeed. Clorox is motivated to help turn this vision into reality.” — Ed Huber, Chief Sustainability Officer, The Clorox Co.
“The Roadmap is an important step toward igniting systems change for the circularity of packaging in the US. The Recycling Partnership is proud to be leading the way as we engage stakeholders from all along the full supply chain in creating scalable solutions that are tailor made to fit the unique needs of our US.system.” — Sarah Dearman, VP of Circular Ventures, The Recycling Partnership
ACC asks: what about Advanced Recycling?
“We welcome the goals of the U.S. Plastics Pact’s Roadmap to 2025, a plan to further ‘kickstart action’ on plastics recycling in the United States,” says Joshua Baca, the American Chemistry Council’s vice president of plastics. “We strongly share in the vision of a circular economy for plastics, and we look forward to opportunities to work with those involved.
“In 2018, America’s Plastics Makers established two critical goals: 100% of U.S. plastic packaging is recyclable or recoverable by 2030 and 100% of U.S. plastic packaging is re-used, recycled or recovered by 2040. Last year, we released our own Roadmap to Reuse, which outlined a vision to mobilize the entire plastics value chain to achieve these goals.
“Absent from the U.S. Plastic Pact’s roadmap is a recognition of the role that advanced recycling will play in ensuring more types of plastics are recycled and used again and again,” says Baca. “Breakthroughs in advanced recycling enable us to reduce waste by capturing the post-use value of notable plastics, like multilayer pouches and film, mixed plastics and polystyrene foam food containers. And today’s advanced recycling technologies enable food, medical and pharmaceutical grade plastics to be produced from used plastics.
“As an industry, our hope is the Pact will focus more on proactive efforts to boost plastics recycling and to mature the circular economy for plastics.
“We also call for the Pact to be transparent, data-driven and make recommendations based on science and engineering, rather than ideology, when it comes to efforts to ‘phase out problematic plastic’. Having an inclusive and open process will generate more informed and reliable outcomes and minimize risks of unintended consequences that can result from material substitution.
“Elimination of certain types of plastics or bans do not increase plastics recycling,” Baca continues. “Hurriedly choosing winners and losers today also ignores the essential role plastic packaging plays in reducing greenhouse gas emissions compared to other materials.
“As noted, the Pact’s ‘Roadmap is a living document and will evolve’. We hope part of this evolution will be continued dialogue to ensure a clear path to recycle all types of plastics.”
AnEco’s products are officially available on Amazon US – the largest e-commerce platform in this country. This is the result of a continuous process of researching, developing and affirming the core values of AnEco to approach and be present in the international market.
100% compostable products AnEco are now available on Amazon US
Effort to bring a Vietnamese brand to the world
In March 2021, AnEco successfully registered the trademark in the United States. This is the first strategic step for major projects of AnEco in this challenging market, starting with Amazon.
Amazon is one of the largest electronic commerce for retailers in Europe with more than 150 million users around the world and accounts for nearly 40% of all online retail activities in the US. These figures show that e-commerce is a “fertile land” with a lot of potentials for exploitation and development. Therefore, AnEco considers it a great opportunity to introduce “Made In Vietnam” compostable products to the world.
On July 7, 2021, AnEco’s products were officially listed on Amazon in the US. Now, customers can easily search and order AnEco products from this platform. After the first days of opening for sale, AnEco store has received a lot of visits, purchases and positive reviews.
Understanding consumers
After researching the market and customers’ needs, AnEco chooses the 3-gallon trash bag product to “say hello to the US”. This is an easy-to-use size and fits most types of household trash cans.
AnEco 100% compostable garbage bag
With outstanding features such as high resistance, leakproof, easy tear, AnEco trash bag deserves to be a “redoubtable opponent” to any other nylon bag products on the market.
In particular, AnEco garbage bags have the ability to completely decompose into humus, CO2 and water within 6 to 12 months without leaving microplastics or harmful agents to the environment. Therefore, after being used for many different purposes including home and office uses as well as outdoor activities, AnEco trash bags easily decompose even when buried in the home garden or vermicompost bins.
In particular, AnEco trash bag products are fully qualified with the most prestigious certificates for its compostability required by the US market such as BPI Compostable (US Standard ASTM D6400), TUV OK Compost HOME (EU Standard), Seedling Logo (Australian Standard 4736-2006).
AnEco certificates for its compostability
Continuous innovation and expansion
Not only providing 100% compostable bags but AnEco will also continue to deploy other potential alternatives to plastic items such as tablecloths, cutlery, straws, bowls, plates, cups, food bags, etc.
In the persistent journey of research and development, AnEco’s goal is to reduce single-use plastic wastes and introduce the quintessence of compostable technology from Vietnam to consumers in the opposite hemisphere.
AnEco – solution for a “green” future
Proud to be a high-quality Vietnamese product that brings optimal solutions for human health and the environment, AnEco is ready to compete with other big enterprises in the “green” consumer goods to affirm its position in the upcoming time. Through Amazon, AnEco is reaching its target customers and building the brand image in the international market.
Click https://amzn.to/3hihg2q to discover the first “on-air” product – AnEco compostable trash bag.
Packaging supplier Novolex has announced that it has launched a new production line in Tennessee, USA to manufacture compostable cold beverage cups made from the plant-based bioplastic, PLA.
The clear PLA-based cups will be available from Novolex brand Eco-Products, a leading provider of foodservice packaging made from renewable and recycled resources.
“PLA looks, acts and performs like a traditional clear plastic, yet it is 100% compostable in commercial compost facilities,” said Adrianne Tipton, Chief Technology Officer of Novolex. “It is one more sustainable choice that we are proud to offer our customers.
“At Novolex, we’re focused on a future where the packaging we make is recyclable or compostable,” Tipton added.
The new manufacturing line, located at the Novolex manufacturing complex in Chattanooga, features state-of-the-art technology from some of the world’s leading thermoforming and extrusion equipment suppliers.
The environmental benefits of PLA products are twofold. First, they are made from renewable resources like corn that can be grown again and again. Second, PLA products are third-party BPI-certified compostable, meaning that instead of going to a landfill, the products can be turned into fertile soil.
“We’re creating cups made from plants that, after using, can be composted to help plants grow again,” said Ian Jacobson, President of Eco-Products. “It’s part of our commitment to work with our customers to achieve their Zero Waste goal, a win for both our customers and the environment.”
Small pieces of plastic are everywhere, stretching from urban environments to pristine wilderness. Left to their own devices, it can take hundreds of years for them to degrade completely. Catalysts activated by sunlight could speed up the process, but getting these compounds to interact with microplastics is difficult. In a proof-of-concept study, researchers reporting in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces developed self-propelled microrobots that can swim, attach to plastics and break them down.
Microrobots (dark green spot) coated on microplastics. Photo: ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.
While plastic products are omnipresent indoors, plastic waste and broken bits now litter the outdoors, too. The smallest of these — microplastics less than 5 mm in size — are hard to pick up and remove. In addition, they can adsorb heavy metals and pollutants, potentially harming humans or animals if accidentally consumed. So, previous researchers proposed a low-energy way to get rid of plastics in the environment by using catalysts that use sunlight to produce highly reactive compounds that break down these types of polymers. However, getting the catalysts and tiny plastic pieces in contact with each other is challenging and usually requires pretreatments or bulky mechanical stirrers, which aren’t easily scaled-up. Martin Pumera and colleagues wanted to create a sunlight-propelled catalyst that moves toward and latches onto microparticles and dismantles them.
To transform a catalytic material into light-driven microrobots, the researchers made star-shaped particles of bismuth vanadate and then evenly coated the 4-8?m-wide structures with magnetic iron oxide. The microrobots could swim down a maze of channels and interact with microplastic pieces along their entire lengths. The researchers found that under visible light, microrobots strongly glommed on to four common types of plastics. The team then illuminated pieces of the four plastics covered with the microrobot catalyst for seven days in a dilute hydrogen peroxide solution. They observed that the plastic lost 3% of its weight and that the surface texture for all types changed from smooth to pitted, and small molecules and components of the plastics were found in the left-over solution. The researchers say the self-propelled microrobot catalysts pave the way toward systems that can capture and degrade microplastics in hard-to-reach-locations.
