With the deepening of plastic pollution control policies in China, the biodegradable plastic industry has developed rapidly. Biodegradable plastic products, in addition to being used for plastic bags, straws, etc., have also been successfully used for disposable knives, forks, spoons, and tableware. With the promotion and use of fully biodegradable disposable knives, forks, and spoons in the future, it will also better provide technical support for the healthy development of the service industry and promote the treatment of plastic pollution.
As the saying goes, food is the most important thing for people, and people cannot live without three meals a day. Of course, they cannot live without dining utensils that hold meals, namely, non edible tools that come into direct contact with food during meals, and utensils and utensils used to assist in food distribution or ingestion. In addition, with the rapid development of the catering industry and the continuous expansion of the industry's market scale, there are many more convenient, fast, and portable disposable tableware such as knives, forks, spoons, and straws (mainly made of plastic, highly foaming materials, coated paper, etc.) on the market.
Although disposable knives, forks, and spoons facilitate people's diet, there are certain problems such as plastic pollution, which brings considerable pressure to the environment. To this end, the national disposable plastic pollution control work such as knives, forks, and spoons has been vigorously promoted, and the "plastic restriction" work has achieved significant results, and the "white pollution" has been significantly controlled. In the current situation of "controlling plastic pollution" and "dual carbon goals", more and more enterprises are developing biodegradable plastic products, mainly for disposable knives, forks, spoons, tableware, shopping bags, etc.
From a market perspective, many tout biodegradability or biodegradability Fully biodegradable "alternative plastic" products (For example, oxidized biodegradable plastics and biodegradable plastics have emerged, but in reality, most of these biodegradable plastic products can only be accelerated to disintegrate into microplastic fragments or be biodegradable under specific conditions, such as sufficient ultraviolet light or heat. They are not capable of being degraded under all natural environmental conditions, and the products are uneven. Standards in the field of degradability such as disposable knives, forks, and spoons are not perfect enough, affecting industry health development.
It is reported that a few days ago, the group standard "All Biodegradable Knife, Fork, and Spoon" drafted by the Shanghai Packaging Technology Association and Anhui Fengyuan Biological New Material Co., Ltd. in collaboration with Changya New Material Technology Co., Ltd. has completed the preparation of a draft for comments, and is now open to the public for comments. From the perspective of content, this group label clearly stipulates the technical requirements, test methods, inspection rules, packaging marks, packaging, storage and transportation of fully biodegradable knives, forks, and spoons, and is only applicable to disposable knives, forks, and spoons made from fully biodegradable plastic as the main raw material through injection molding process.
The group standard "Fully Biodegradable Knife, Fork, and Spoon" also specifies the technical requirements for a fully biodegradable knife, fork, and spoon, including 12 important technical requirements such as raw materials, additives, appearance, dimensional deviation, physical and mechanical properties, temperature resistance, hygiene performance, microbial indicators, heavy metal and specific element content, and biodegradability. In terms of physical and mechanical properties, it is specified that the bending resistance angle should not be less than 30 °, and there should be no cracks or obvious deformation, so as to ensure the use performance and quality safety of fully biodegradable knives, forks, and spoons.
With the promotion of the "plastic restriction order" for plastic pollution control, the demand for degradable plastic products has also witnessed rapid growth. As one of the alternative materials for plastics, biodegradable materials have been highly expected since their birth. With the improvement of performance and the continuous reduction of cost, biodegradable plastics are beginning to be used in the fields of disposable dining utensils, packaging bags, fibers, agricultural mulch, and other household goods. I believe that the use and promotion of fully biodegradable disposable knives, forks, and spoons will also continuously improve the green development level of plastic products, and well improve the "white pollution".