"Replacing Plastics with Bamboo": A New Track for Green, Low-carbon, and Environmentally Friendly Industries

Recently, the National Development and Reform Commission and other departments issued the "Three-Year Action Plan for Accelerating the Development of 'Replacing Plastics with Bamboo,'" proposing that by 2025, a preliminary industrial system for "replacing plastics with bamboo" will be established. Compared with 2022, the comprehensive added value of major products in this field will increase by more than 20%, and the comprehensive utilization rate of bamboo materials will increase by 20 percentage points, fostering greater expectations for "replacing plastics with bamboo." Hence, "replacing plastics with bamboo" has embarked on the expressway of development.

"Replacing Plastics with Bamboo": A New Track for Green, Low-carbon, and Eco-friendly Industries

China boasts abundant bamboo resources and immense potential for industrial development. With 837 species and an area of 7.56 million hectares, China produces 150 million tons of bamboo annually, involving 20 provinces. Fujian, Jiangxi, Hunan, Zhejiang, Sichuan, Guangdong, Guangxi, and Anhui together account for about 90% of the country's total bamboo resources. There are over 10,000 bamboo processing enterprises, and the bamboo industry's output value has increased from 82 billion yuan in 2010 to 415.3 billion yuan in 2022, with an average annual growth rate of over 30%. According to the bamboo industry development plan, China's total bamboo industry output value will exceed 1 trillion yuan by 2035.

Bamboo is a renewable resource with astonishing growth rates, effectively reducing pressure on forest resources. Additionally, bamboo is biodegradable, posing no pollution or waste to the natural environment. Furthermore, bamboo forests have significantly higher carbon sequestration capabilities than ordinary wood, making them valuable carbon sink resources. These environmental advantages endow bamboo with tremendous potential to replace plastics, becoming a crucial force in driving sustainable development. Bamboo has demonstrated significant potential to replace plastics in home furnishings, automotive interiors, electronic product casings, sporting equipment, and even industrial fields.

What achievements has China made in "replacing plastics with bamboo" over the past year? Let's examine the development situation using Shaoyang City in Hunan Province, which boasts substantial bamboo industry resources, as an example.

Shaoyang City currently has 2.523 million mu (approximately 168,200 hectares) of bamboo forests, with 562 million bamboo stems, ranking first in the province in terms of both area and number. The bamboo industry has become a pivotal pillar industry for rural revitalization. The city has over 140 bamboo enterprises and 130 farmer cooperatives, driving income growth and prosperity for more than 790 villages, 30,000 households, and 150,000 people. The annual output value of the bamboo industry reaches 5.18 billion yuan, serving as a significant support for rural revitalization and high-quality county economic development.

In recent years, the Shaoyang Municipal Government in Hunan Province has encouraged and supported private companies to engage in technological innovation, forming an industrial development model integrating research and development, production, sales, and services. Driven by the government, some enterprises focus on bamboo winding technology, developing various innovative products such as bamboo winding composite pipe corridors, bamboo winding space capsules, bamboo winding houses, bamboo winding sewage covers, and bamboo winding missile launcher pipes. These products offer advantages like long service life, energy-saving and low-carbon features, light weight, and low overall cost, representing significant technological revolutionary products with significant ecological, economic, and social impacts.

Some enterprises emphasize environmental innovation, domestically pioneering a production process for one-time use bamboo tableware made from single-layer bamboo slices, without any chemical additives or glue during processing, ensuring environmental friendliness, high quality, and low cost. These products are popular domestically and internationally, exported to countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan, Finland, and Sweden, and entering world's top 500 retailers like Walmart and Metro, with an annual export volume of over US$5 million. These "replacing plastics with bamboo" products have become new economic growth points for Shaoyang City, Hunan Province.

While responding to the national initiative of "replacing plastics with bamboo," Shaoyang City, Hunan Province, also leverages its bamboo forest ecological advantages by connecting modern agricultural and forestry sites and bamboo industry demonstration parks to create green landscape vitality zones and bamboo culture and tourism integrated development demonstration sites, successfully converting ecological advantages into industrial advantages.

Sources: China Daily, Xinhuanet