Currently, the degradable plastic products on the market are mainly starch-based degradable plastics, PLA and PBAT. Although starch-based plastics are relatively cheap, their performance is relatively poor, and they cannot be completely degraded. They still pollute the environment and are difficult to promote.
PLA and PBAT have better performance and can be completely degraded. They are the mainstream degradable plastic products in the future, and the industry has huge room for development. PLA has good transparency and biocompatibility, and is generally used for daily plastic products, films, and medical product packaging. PBAT has good thermal stability and mechanical properties, and is generally used in disposable daily necessities and packaging materials.
The demand side of biodegradable plastics is mainly concentrated in the packaging fields such as plastic bags, lunch boxes, mulch film, express delivery, etc., because these plastics have low monomer consumption, are easy to pollute, and are difficult to separate. Biodegradable plastics are more suitable to become alternatives to traditional plastics in these fields. .
From the perspective of the global demand for biodegradable plastics in 2019, the packaging sector accounted for 53% of the total demand, of which flexible packaging accounted for 31% and rigid packaging 22%. In addition, textiles, agriculture, consumer goods and other fields account for a relatively large proportion.
From the perspective of production capacity structure, the global annual production capacity of biodegradable plastics in 2019 was 1.077 million tons. Among them, starch-based degradable plastics are 409,300 tons, accounting for 38% of the global biodegradable plastic production capacity. PLA is 269,000 tons, accounting for 25%; PBAT is 258,500 tons, accounting for 24%. The structure of degradable plastics in different regions is also different. Among the main consumption regions, Western Europe is dominated by starch-based plastics; North America, Asia, and Oceania are dominated by PLA. Western Europe is the region with the largest amount of starch-based plastics, mainly because of its early development of degradable plastics. At first, there were no problems of starch-based plastic degradation and incomplete molecular degradation.
From the perspective of plastic prices, the price of PLA is 16,000-19,000 yuan/ton, the price of PBAT is 19-21,000 yuan/ton, and the price of polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, polyvinyl chloride, etc. does not exceed 10,000 yuan per ton. . It can be seen that the price of degradable plastics is 2-3 times that of traditional plastics. The high production cost of degradable plastics is one of the reasons why the progress of replacing traditional plastics has been relatively slow.
In recent years, under the guidance of policies, the polylactic acid (PLA) market has been in short supply for a while, and lower production capacity has increased the market gap. In the past, the market price of polylactic acid was generally maintained at about 20,000 yuan a ton. But at the end of 2019, polylactic acid has risen to 30,000 yuan per ton, and this year it has risen rapidly, rising to about 50,000 yuan per ton, and there is even a situation where there is no price and no goods.
Polylactic acid biodegradable plastic raw materials are synthesized from corn, using biological fermentation methods, which have certain technical barriers. At present, the core technology is monopolized by some European and American companies. Domestic companies started late in this regard, the technology is not yet mature, and there is a greater uncertainty in production. In the short term, the contradiction between supply and demand cannot be resolved or will further push up the price of polylactic acid.