How dark is the black curtain of disposable tableware?

With the development of economy, we can eat all the eight cuisines without leaving home, but do you know what kind of impact the humble disposable lunch box will have on our health and ecology while enjoying delicacy and convenience?

Did you use disposable cutlery today?

Disposable plastic tableware refers to disposable tableware made of resin or other thermoplastic materials by thermoplastic molding, including disposable lunch boxes, knives, forks, spoons, cups, straws and so on.

According to statistics, the number of online food orders reached 364 million in 2018, and the daily orders of the three major domestic online food delivery platforms can reach 20 million. As far as plastic bags are concerned, according to the calculation of one plastic bag for each takeout, each plastic bag is 0.06m2, the plastic bag used in one day alone can cover 1.2 million square meters of land, equivalent to 168standard football fields.

Obvious increase in the number of domestic waste treatment plants in China | Polaris fixed network

Article: in 2020, China's waste incineration capacity will reach 600000 tons / daily treatment capacity of nearly 200 million tons.

However, a takeout usually includes plastic lunch boxes, spoons and disposable chopsticks. According to the three plastic lunch boxes used for each takeout, each plastic lunch box has a high 1mm, the plastic lunch box used in just one day can reach 60 million / day, which is equivalent to the cumulative height of Mount Everest.

According to the latest measurement data, Mount Qomolangma is as high as 8848 meters. | Petal net

This is only data from the takeout industry, and the use of disposable tableware usually includes milk tea shops, vendors and packing for eating out.

Disposable cutlery is affecting your health.

In public perception, there is a misunderstanding that disposable tableware is cleaner and hygienic. In fact, disposable tableware will add chemical additives such as fluorescent substances and plasticizers in the production process, which is not only unhygienic, but also very unfriendly to human health.

Fluorescent substance: fluorescent brightener is a complex organic compound that produces fluorescence by absorbing invisible ultraviolet light and is widely used in product whitening. Related studies have shown that there is a potential risk of cancer.

Plasticizer: it is a kind of polymer material additive, also known as plasticizer. Use in the production process can increase the toughness of the product and make it more durable. At present, the most commonly used plasticizer is phthalate estrogens, which has estrogenic effect, and too much intake will interfere with the normal endocrine of the human body. If it accumulates in the body for a long time, it will cause hormone imbalance and lead to a decline in the body's immunity. It is clear that canceration will occur in animals, which has a certain safety risk.

Disposable plastics are endangering our homes.

Disposable plastic waste will be broken under the action of physics and chemistry, and become the main secondary source of microplastics. In recent years, microplastics have been detected in seafood, edible salt, beer, honey and other products. Espinosa, president of the 72nd session of the United Nations General Assembly, pointed out: it is estimated that by 2050, there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish.

Picture of sea turtles entangled in plastic nets at the bottom of the sea | creativity of picture insects

About 8 million tons of plastic waste enters the ocean every year, equivalent to a whole truck of garbage entering the ocean every minute, orbiting the earth 420 times, according to a statement posted on the World Environment Day website. Moreover, at least 1 billion marine creatures lose their lives due to plastic waste every year.

Ocean map taken by Richard Horner while diving | Richard Horner

In May 2018, a 4.5-meter-long short-legged pilot whale in the Andaman Sea of Thailand was stranded and died. After dissection, 80 plastic bags were found in the whale's stomach. In February 2019, a whale was stranded on the west coast of Norway. But what is really shocking is that the whale's stomach is stuffed with 30 plastic bags, 9 meters of rope, flowerpots and a ball of more than 30 square meters of plastic sheeting. In March 2019, 80 jin of plastic garbage was found in the stomach of a dead Kirschner beaked whale on the east coast of Davao, Philippines.

Plastic bag image dissected from whale stomach | official account: Chinese weather enthusiast

Article: the whale was stranded in Thailand and died. 80 plastic bags were found in his stomach. Plastic pollution has become a global crisis.

The raw materials for the production of inferior disposable tableware are shocking.

Disposable cutlery, we are all very familiar with. There is not much contact with medical waste in daily life, but we can also know that it is full of bacteria, viruses, and even the blood of patients. Who would have thought that in order to pursue profits, black-hearted businesses unexpectedly use medical waste as the raw material for the production of disposable tableware.

On August 29, 2016, the first case of environmental pollution by medical waste in Nanjing was solved. After two days of counting, the police cleaned up about 8.5 tons of medical wastes such as needles and infusion tubes and about 5 tons of antibiotic glass bottles at the scene. Since the beginning of 2012, suspect Zhang and others have recycled medical waste from several hospitals in Beijing at prices ranging from 800 yuan to 1000 yuan per month, and several people have been sold to processing plants to produce plastic granules, which plastic products manufacturers have bought at a price of 6000 yuan per ton. A police investigation found that black-hearted manufacturers used plastic particles made from these medical wastes to be reprocessed to produce fake plastic toys and tableware of well-known brands.

8.29 scene picture of medical waste pollution case in Nanjing | Baidu encyclopedia

On January 19, 2020, the National Development and Reform Commission issued the "opinions on further strengthening the Control of plastic pollution (Development and Reform Huanzi (2020) 80)". The fourth point of the document prohibits the production and sale of plastic products that explicitly prohibit the manufacture of plastic products using medical waste as raw materials. However, it is not rare for unscrupulous businessmen to break the law for their own interests, and it is also important for consumers to boycott the use of disposable plastic products. Citizens should also give full play to their right of civic supervision and actively report illegal acts of manufacturing plastic products using medical waste as raw materials.

In addition, CCTV has also exposed the dark scenes of disposable tableware production. Manufacturers first buy cheaply from everywhere, or even pick out disposable chopsticks that have been used from the garbage. First go through sodium hydroxide in the pool, remove mildew spots by fumigation, bleach it with industrial hydrogen peroxide, dry it and sell it at a new price.

Learn to identify in order to refuse to use shoddy tableware

Qualified disposable tableware is not conducive to human health, not to mention that these inferior disposable tableware produced by unknown things, even catering merchants may take the initiative to buy inferior tableware in order to reduce costs. So how should we identify inferior disposable tableware?

Disposable lunch boxes: inferior disposable lunch boxes have poor strength and dark color, and there may be serious oil leakage.

Disposable chopsticks: see if the packaging has the manufacturer's name, trademark and contact information; whether the color is too white and whether the smell smells of sulfur. It should be noted that hot washing with boiling water will accelerate the decomposition of sulfur dioxide, can be washed with c