China is the largest producer of PET, so why are high-end recycled plastic products (food-grade, cosmetic-grade) still scarce domestically? Why can developed countries produce high-quality recycled bottle flakes with "high transparency and high purity," while most recycling plants in China cannot? What exactly is the biggest challenge in plastic recycling?
I. From the residential perspective: There are many types of plastics, and the recycling rate is low.
1. Difficulty in plastic sorting and recycling:
Many plastics are recyclable, but grassroots waste collectors don't know how to sort them. Mixed low-value plastic waste fetches very low prices. Only high-value, easily sorted, and compressed plastic products like beverage bottles are sorted and sold.
Even a PET beverage bottle contains different materials and colors of plastic: the body (PET), the cap (PP), the label (PVC, PE, PP, etc.), adhesives, printing inks, colorants, additives, and stains from use (beverage residue, grease).
2. Low Recycling Rate of Low-Value Plastics:
There are two main reasons why low-value plastics are difficult to recycle: First, there are too many types of low-value plastics, requiring significant manpower for sorting compared to high-value plastics. Unsorted plastics fetch extremely low prices. Second, different types of plastics need to be sold to different recycling points, and storing waste plastics requires substantial space. Currently, rent costs are high, and policies prohibit indiscriminate dumping.
II. Recycling End: Multiple Links, Low Profit Margins for Selling Plastics at the Initial Stage
The entire waste plastic recycling process involves five stages: "residents - waste recycling stations - centralized transfer centers - plastic pelletizing companies - plastic processing companies." During this process, waste plastics need to undergo multi-level sorting, being washed, crushed, and made into plastic pellets, which are then supplied to plastic processing companies to manufacture plastic products.
The flow of waste plastics from residents to plastic processing companies involves three key recycling links: waste recycling stations, centralized transfer centers, and plastic pelletizing companies. Because each level strives to maintain its own profit, this layered squeeze ultimately results in extremely low profit margins for selling plastics to residents. Taking August-September 2025 prices as an example, the selling price of high-value plastic granules was 4.5 yuan/kg, while the price sold to residents was only 2 yuan/kg, with even lower profits for mixed plastics.
III. Enterprise Side: Small-scale recycling companies and poor production environments
1. Small-scale and technologically backward recycling companies:
Most companies have outdated recycling technology, small production scale, and poor on-site environments. Plastic granulation companies mainly clean, crush, and granulate waste plastics, then send the produced plastic granules to plastic product processing companies. Surveys found that these companies are mostly small enterprises, mainly located in small industrial parks, generally with only one workshop, or even small, dirty, and disorganized workshops. Because plastic washing and granulation requires professional wastewater treatment facilities and significant capital investment, many companies cannot afford this due to limited production scale, resulting in indiscriminate discharge of wastewater and secondary environmental pollution.
2. Three drawbacks of traditional mechanical recycling:
1. Impurities are difficult to completely remove: Glue is not completely removed, labels are left with residue, ink leaves stains, and impurities carbonize during melting. This results in decreased transparency, a yellowing or graying color, a stronger odor, and deteriorated performance. This makes it difficult for mechanically recycled PET to re-enter the food-grade or cosmetic-grade market.
2. Mixed-color bottles are difficult to classify: When PET bottles of different colors are mixed and melted, they turn gray, brown, and dark yellow. It's difficult to make them transparent again, and it fails to meet the visual requirements of high-end packaging.
3. Performance deteriorates: During each melting process, PET undergoes molecular chain breakage, resulting in decreased strength, decreased viscosity, and decreased heat resistance.
IV. Policy Side: Implementation of plastic recycling policies is difficult, and government support is low
1. Low-value plastic recycling is neglected. In the current context of household waste sorting, low-value plastics are generally classified as "other waste," leading to their recycling value being largely ignored. At the same time, low-value plastic products are diverse, lacking unified classification standards, making recycling extremely difficult.
2. Small-scale and Low-efficiency Recycling Enterprises: Most waste recycling enterprises are small-scale, family-run businesses. Their small size and low environmental and economic efficiency make them a neglected sector. These enterprises are rarely included in urban development plans and lack necessary development intervention and guidance. Limited by their own circumstances, plastic recycling enterprises not only fail to enjoy policy benefits but also face various restrictions.
3. Inadequate Plastic Waste Recycling System: Domestic plastic waste mainly comes from farmers' markets, household waste, and shopping malls, resulting in mixed colors, numerous impurities, untraceable origins, and difficult cleaning, making it hard to meet the demands of high-end recycling.
4. Lack of Regulatory Framework: Developed countries stipulate "mandatory usage ratios," requiring brands to use recycled materials, with penalties for non-compliance. In such an environment, recycling systems naturally evolve towards higher quality and traceability. European brands widely use transparent bottles, single-material packaging, and easily recyclable packaging, which is the foundation of high-quality recycling. Domestic packaging design focuses more on cost and diversity, and the concept of "designing for recycling" is still developing.
V. Summary and Suggestions
Theoretically, all waste plastics can be recycled and reused. However, a lack of public awareness regarding waste sorting and the difficulty in scaling up low-value plastics into an industry mean that plastic pelletizing enterprises are small-scale with poor production environments, and recycled plastic products have low market acceptance. These factors combined result in extremely low plastic waste recycling rates. Especially with current socio-economic development, rising labor and transportation costs, coupled with limited profit margins for plastic recycling, lead to low market competitiveness for recycled plastic products.
Addressing these challenges requires a concerted effort. Government bodies should strengthen public education on plastic sorting and provide clearer policy guidance to improve source separation. The plastic industry layout needs rational planning to foster a greener, more circular industrial chain. Operational standards for recycling units must be standardized, processes optimized, and sorting refined to enhance efficiency and the value of recycled plastic. In this context, technological innovation and advanced equipment from industry partners like Kitech Machinery become crucial for upgrading processing capabilities and enabling the production of higher quality recycled materials.
