On December 6, China's first recycled lunch box material to prepare low-carbon polypropylene fabric was unveiled in Songjiang, and under the joint research and development of Donghua University and Meituan Tsingshan Science and Technology Fund, the recycled lunch box was transformed into a quick-drying sportswear. The breakthrough of this technology has successfully provided a high-value recycling scenario for takeaway lunch boxes, allowing more possibilities for recycled plastic products.
At the press conference of "the first recycled lunch box material to prepare low-carbon polypropylene fabric" held in the afternoon of the same day, a seemingly ordinary black T-shirt attracted the attention of the audience, and the sportswear was made of ultra-fine denier polypropylene fiber obtained by processing and modification of waste lunch boxes. The sportswear containing 30% fine denier polypropylene fiber is dry and skin-friendly, and the wearer does not feel sticky even when sweating, and has been well received.
Talking about the original intention of the project research and development, Ma Yichun, a doctor from the School of Materials Science and Engineering of Donghua University, said that when efficient and convenient takeaway has become the norm of life, takeaway lunch boxes have also caused a potential burden on the environment, at present, there are about 1 million tons of waste lunch boxes on the market every year to find a new way out, "We are thinking about whether waste lunch boxes made of polypropylene can be made into recycled polypropylene fabrics like waste beverage bottles decades ago after recycling." After several verifications and confirmation of the feasibility of the technology, the team invited major listed companies to jointly develop and started a research and development process of more than a year.
Ma Yichun told reporters that the first problem after the recycling of the lunch box is how to remove the oil stains in the box. Not only that, the technical problems in deodorization, spinning and fabric production and other links need to be overcome, with the assistance of many parties and the unremitting efforts of the research team, we finally succeeded in opening up the technical route of "recycled lunch box - slice - granulation - drawing - weaving - clothes". After giving new life to recycled lunch box materials, the R&D team invited a third-party technology company to conduct carbon accounting on recycled lunch box materials, and the results showed that compared with virgin materials, the carbon reduction of recycled lunch box materials can reach 73%.
It is understood that in the field of circular economy, the recycling and reuse of lunch boxes has always been a difficult topic, said Tian Jin, project director of Meituan's Tsingshan Project. In the process of promoting environmental protection in the food delivery industry, Meituan not only focuses on green packaging innovation and supply chain construction at the front end, but also focuses on the large-scale recycling and high-value utilization of plastic lunch boxes at the back end. The results of the project released this time, with the support of innovative technology and technology, have achieved a breakthrough in the application scenario of polypropylene lunch box recycling, and can also effectively drive the improvement of the level of front-end waste plastic recycling. "In the future, we hope to work with more projects like this to truly use technology as the engine to achieve a better life and a more beautiful nature. Tian Jin said.
Source: Shanghai Songjiang