Review
The National Development and Reform Commission and Ministry of Ecology and Environment had already proposed the "New Plastic Restriction Order" (" Opinions on Further Strengthening Plastic Pollution Control ") issued in 2020 :
_ | By the end of 2020, the production and sale of disposable foam plastic tableware and disposable plastic cotton swabs will be prohibited. | _ |
Note: In the language system of some regions, plastic = plastic, and plastic will be referred to as "glue" when expressing it. Therefore, the product title of some plastic sticks and cotton swabs in is presented as "glue stick and cotton swabs" . Since the sampling purchase results confirmed that "glue sticks and cotton swabs" are indeed made of plastic and are sold in large quantities, this statistical chart also includes the survey results of "glue sticks and cotton swabs" into
. For details, please see:
The recommended product is still a disposable plastic cotton swab. (Screenshot from JD.com)
Taobao &1688:
Products with obvious information have been removed from the shelves, but there are still many products with "insufficient evidence and they have been retained."
During the investigation, we also found that some products were sold with plastic cotton swabs and wooden stick cotton swabs mixed, or the product description was inconsistent with the actual product. After further confirmation with customer service, it was found that the products conformed to the characteristics of disposable plastic cotton swabs and were not registered as medical devices, making them disposable plastics that should be banned.
Non-Toxic Pioneer learned about the product characteristics from the customer service of a plastic cotton swab merchant on a platform
The styles and names of banned disposable plastic cotton swabs are very diverse. Starting from the actual situation in which plastic cotton swabs are used, Non-Toxic Pioneer helped Taobao clarify the concept of banned disposable plastic cotton swabs, making its management boundaries of banned plastic cotton swabs clearer. Some links that were originally deemed to have insufficient evidence and were not processed were eventually removed from the shelves.
What kind of cotton swabs are prohibited disposable plastic cotton swabs? Let us help you distinguish one or two:
_ | How to define "banned disposable plastic cotton swabs"? The "Refined Standards for the Management of Restrictions on Relevant Plastic Products (2020 Edition)" jointly issued by nine departments has set detailed standards for disposable plastic cotton swabs that are subject to restrictions: Disposable cotton swabs made with plastic rods as the base material do not include related medical devices . Based on the original intention of product design and our actual life scenarios, no matter what style of plastic cotton swabs they are, most of them are discarded after one-time use due to low price and large quantity. Based on the official ban range of disposable plastic cotton swabs and the similar environmental impact caused by the legacy environment, we believe that: in addition to cotton swab products registered as medical devices, all types of disposable swab products made with plastic rods as base materials should be subject to bans, The packaging name should not be used as the basis for judging whether it is prohibited. The various cotton swabs in the picture are not marked with medical device registration numbers, and they are all prohibited disposable plastic cotton swabs | _ |
Pinduoduo:
Pinduoduo removed most of the links to plastic cotton swabs discovered during the investigation after receiving feedback.
The current governance rules are to implement search and interception of [Plastic Cotton Swabs] and [Disposable Plastic Cotton Swabs]. In the communication, it was stated that the concentration of such products will be reduced.
Summary
For platforms that adopt search interception measures, Non-toxic Pioneer believes that more keywords such as [glue stick cotton swab], [plastic stick cotton swab], etc. also need to be included in the scope of interception; for platforms managed in a mall mode, the management of similar banned products should be consistent to avoid "catch one and release many". After
Non-Toxic Pioneer issued the recommendation, all e-commerce platforms have removed most links to explicitly prohibited disposable plastic cotton swabs. However, further actions need to be taken in terms of full-platform management of disposable cotton swabs and policies to popularize disposable plastic cotton swabs to merchants and consumers.
(Drawing: Bao Gaiding)
Plastic cotton swabs
Is the harm really great?
Everyone knows more about the environmental changes of plastic bags and plastic straws: When plastic pollution is mentioned, the first thing that comes to mind is plastic bags, and we clearly saw that various milk tea shops abandoned plastic straws after the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Ecology and Environment jointly issued the "Opinions on Further Strengthening the Control of Plastic Pollution" in 2020. But regarding plastic cotton swabs, it seems that it is rarely mentioned, so it is even less noticed.
(Drawing: Liu Yuanmeng)
Our neglect of the use of disposable plastic cotton swabs has also made it an important environmental hazard. And its environmental harm issue goes back to the impact of plastic pollution on the environment.
Plastic cotton swab contamination appears on coastlines around the world, and once they enter natural environments such as oceans, they may pose a threat to the lives of wildlife. Slender plastic cotton swabs not only cause seahorses to lose their anchorage in rapids, they are also often found in the stomachs of seabirds, and broken plastic cotton swabs with sharp edges can even pierce the internal organs of animals that accidentally eat them [1].
(Source Network)
Plastic cotton swab sticks are dispersed in the environment and break down through biological and non-biological processes, such as bacterial activity, ultraviolet light, temperature and abrasion, producing smaller fragments (microplastics, nanoplastics). polypropylene is the material commonly used in plastic swabs. Weathered polypropylene absorbs more of a group of chemicals called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).
Research believes that PAHs can enter the human body as microplastics move up the food chain through the process of "biomagnification" [2].
Microplastics are found in fish, clams, mussels, oysters and crabs, and are also found in table and sea salt, seaweed, honey, tea, beer, tap and bottled water. Picture source network, re-creation: Bao Gaiding
In this way, the plastic cotton swab sticks that we discarded by our own hands have returned to us in the form of microplastics. Even with food intake and breathing, microplastics are also found in many places in the human body (such as in lung tissue, excrement, blood, and even placenta) [3]. For this reason, it is particularly important for us to consciously avoid the use of single-use plastic products.
The production and consumption of large amounts of disposable plastics such as plastic cotton swabs will also affect climate change [4].While the concept of bringing your own shopping bags and using degradable straws has become more ingrained in our lives, disposable plastic cotton swabs have not been completely banned. Our neglect of them may make them slip through the cracks of plastic pollution control.
What to do next
?
Non-toxic Pioneer will further communicate with various e-commerce platforms to help the platforms implement the "new plastic restriction order" and other policy requirements. The directions include:
_ | plays a greater role on the platform. lists plastic rods and cotton swabs as environmentally hazardous products that need to be monitored on the platform, and data preferences recommend non-plastic cotton swabs. It actively advocates in conjunction with the platform's public welfare projects and verifies the authenticity of plastic cotton swabs and medical equipment provided by stores. Immediately launch a comprehensive inspection and delete all relevant advertisements for disposable plastic cotton swabs (except for medical devices registered in compliance with regulations). Notify the national policy to the stores on the platform, requiring merchants not to put on the shelves all disposable plastic products that are prohibited from production and sale, including disposable plastic cotton swabs. Provide sufficient regulatory publicity and notification: : Promote science to the public and businesses about the illegality and health and environmental hazards of disposable plastic cotton swabs. | _ |
Literature reference:
[1] (2022). Impact Assessment: Ban On Selected Single-Use Plastics. resourcefutures. https://www.resourcefutures.co.uk/project/impacts-of-a-potential-uk-ban-of-plastic-straws-plastic-cotton-bud-sticks-and-plastic-drinks-stirrers/
[2] Yuan&Cummins. (2022). Human health concerns regarding microplastics in the aquatic environment - From marine to food systems. Science of the total environment. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969722008221
[3] Morrison M, Trevisan R, Ranasinghe P, et al. A growing crisis for One Health: Impacts of plastic pollution across layers of biological function[J]. Frontiers in Marine Science, 2022, 9: 980705.
[4] Chowdhury G W, Koldewey H J, Niloy Md N H, et al. The ecological impact of plastic pollution in a changing climate[J]. Emerging Topics in Life Sciences, 2022, 6(4): 389-402.
Writing: Luo Yuxin
Revision: Bao Gaiding
Typesetting: Zhang Jiwei
Review: Maoda, Xixi, Aodaili
E-commerce detoxification Detoxify E-Commerce
In 2019, the drug-free pioneer launched an e-commerce detoxification campaign to detoxify the public’s daily consumer products through independent testing and corporate advocacy. The goal of the action is to promote major e-commerce platforms to establish chemical management systems and start to prevent toxic products from entering their sales platforms.
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