National People's Congress representative and professor of the School of Resources and Environmental Sciences at East China Normal University, Chen Zhenlou, believes that plastic-wood composite materials are an environmentally friendly material specifically designed to "digest" waste wood and plastic. Although China is currently a major producer of plastic-wood products, there are issues such as backward technology, scattered production capacity, and lagging national standards that need to be addressed urgently.
Chen Zhenlou said that China recycles over 2.5 million tons of waste plastic each year, and cities generate over 8 million tons of wood waste from construction and decoration each year. Wood harvesting and wood processing produce over 100 million tons of branches, fragments, and other waste. Rural areas generate approximately 200 million tons of straw and 35 million tons of rice husks each year. All of these "waste materials" are excellent raw materials for plastic-wood. At the same time, for every 1 ton of plastic-wood composite materials produced, it is equivalent to saving the felling of 1.5 trees that are 30 years old, reducing the pollution caused by 60,000 discarded plastic bags, and eliminating the potential hazards of 114 acres of farmland's plastic film residue. However, there are still many problems in the development of plastic-wood industry in China. The most prominent issue is the lack of product technology research and development, weak and scattered production enterprises, lagging national standards, single product types, high production costs, low added value, and low market acceptance.
Chen Zhenlou suggested that the state should regard the plastic-wood industry as a key environmentally supportive industry and provide policy preferences and benefits in areas such as research and development investment, administrative approval, loan financing, sales and production taxes, product promotion and application, government procurement, etc. At the same time, it is necessary to strengthen the research and development of plastic-wood products, support enterprises in independent innovation, and cultivate and support key enterprises. A unified national standard for the plastic-wood industry should be formulated to promote the development of the plastic-wood industry towards the direction of generalization of raw materials, specialization of equipment, and high-end products.