ecns [expanded by feedex.net]: Report raises fears over plastic foam dinnerware

ecns [expanded by feedex.net]

ecns

Report raises fears over plastic foam dinnerware
http://www.ecns.cn/2013/05-20/64285.shtml
May 20th 2013, 04:23

2013-05-20 13:23
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Plastic foam dinnerware, allowed to be used again after a 14-year ban was lifted recently, is being made from industrial waste and toxic chemicals in a city in south China's Guangdong Province, according to an undercover newspaper investigation.


More than 10 million plastic foam disposable food containers are made each month in one small factory in Guangdong's Dongguan City, where most of the plastic foam products are made, according to the Hangzhou-based City Express.


The products are made from industrial waste and phosphor powder, a toxic substance which can make the items look whiter but may also cause cancer, the newspaper said.


The lifting of a ban on the sale and use of disposable food containers made of plastic foam on May 1 sparked controversy.


However, the National Development and Reform Commission said the ban had ended as plastic foam could now be recycled to become raw materials in construction, paints and stationery.


A decision to ban plastic foam dinnerware was imposed in 1999 over pollution concerns.


But the newspaper said production had never stopped in a number of small factories in Dongguan. There are up to 200 companies in China allowed to make plastic foam products and 10 of them are in the city. Today, Dongguan factories produce over 70 percent of such products on the national market, the newspaper said.


In the 500 square meter factory visited by the undercover reporter, 10 workers were seen producing plastic foam dinnerware by mixing one part of new plastic material to four parts of industrial waste, the newspaper reported. The factory's owner told the reporter they mixed together various kinds of plastic material during production to cut costs.


By using new material, the factory could earn 0.01 yuan per item. But it could triple these earnings by mainly using industrial waste, the owner said.


The factory's machines can churn out thousands of plastic foam products every hour.


In a larger factory in the city there are machines capable of producing 50 containers every second, the paper said.


The products were being sold to big cities such as Shenzhen and Guangzhou, a factory official said.


According to the newspaper, one factory owner said that although plastic foam containers had not been allowed to be used or sold over the past 14 years, they had been able to continue production by bribing local government officials.


"Our factory was inspected by local industrial and environmental watchdogs, but we paid them money to solve the problems," the owner said.


He told the newspaper that 3,000 (US$488) to 5,000 yuan would be paid to keep government watchdogs quiet.


It is estimated that production companies in China have an annual capacity of 14 billion dinnerware items made of plastic foam, according to China National Radio.


Previously, some experts had warned against the decision to end the ban.


Dong Jinshi, deputy general secretary of the Beijing Society for Environmental Sciences, said a recycling system had not been established and it was more dangerous to use such products today as many companies were using waste plastic to make them.





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