"I'm Going to Stock up on 30 Million Paper Straws" | 'plastic' War, Visiting a Paper Straw Factory
“I'm going to stock up on 30 million paper straws.” Jiang Gonghan, who is the general manager of a paper straw company, said and gestured. Thousands of paper boxes are stacked densely in a warehouse on the third floor of KayRun, and by the beginning of 2021, they will be sent to millions of milk tea stores to fill the vacuum left by the ban on single-use plastic straws.
Boxes of straws packed at the factory, waiting to be shipped.
After the paper straws are sterilized by microwave, they are loaded into the automatic packing machine by the workers.
Automatic packaging machine to encapsulate paper straws.
Workers packaged paper straws into boxes.
“When the time comes, there will definitely be customers who can't get the goods even with the price increase. I won't raise the price, I just want to open the market with this batch of goods.” He calculates. Jiang Gonghan bet on paper straws, because he believes that the 2020 introduction of the new version of the “plastic limit” will be able to be strongly enforced.
A paper straw is produced from the production line.
Workers are organizing paper straws with individual packaging.
January 16, 2020, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment jointly issued the “views on further strengthening the governance of plastic pollution,” which stipulates that by the end of 2020, the nationwide food and beverage industry to ban the use of non-degradable disposable plastic straws, all over the country's streets and lanes of the various milk tea stores, coffee shops naturally also in this scope. At present, only the head of the tea, Starbucks and other brands with paper straws, with the implementation of the “Plastic Restriction Order”, more milk tea stores or will embrace paper straws, Jiang Gonghan is looking at this blue ocean.
Workers debugging paper straw production machine.
Equipment panel on a paper straw production line.
A worker is checking whether the paper feeder is working properly.
Random testing of production samples.
Many traditional plastic straw manufacturers are still hovering around, past experience allows them to know, “plastic” is a very difficult thing. After all, the low cost of plastic straws, with a smooth and tough than paper straws, in the minds of consumers in the habit of use is not paper straws can be replaced in a moment.
Workers check the yield rate after commissioning the machine.
The produced paper straws for beverages are placed in rubber baskets waiting to be packed.
Jiang Gonghan does not shy away from saying that paper straws take off by policy, but he also understands that paper straws can be more popular in the market only if they are closer to plastic straws in terms of performance and cost. He enhanced the toughness of paper straws by choosing good paper materials and improving the rolling and cutting process; by purchasing an assembly line to reduce production costs, the daily production capacity of 1.5 million, the workshop only needs four workers. Despite this, the cost is still 50% higher than ordinary plastic straws.
Workers check the yield rate after commissioning the machine.
At the same time, he has to face competition within the paper straw industry. “Some manufacturers can keep their prices very low, related to their raw materials.” He demonstrated on the spot that some paper straws made of poorer materials become soft and collapsed or even disintegrate after being put into hot water for just a few seconds, making them unusable. What's more, the use of poor quality waste paper as raw materials, food safety will have no small hidden danger.
Outer paper used in the production of colored straws.
The pipe coiling machine is coiling and forming the pipe.
Paper straws can be degraded by virtue of the advantages of this, the plastic straws toppled to the ground, but any new industry there will be chaos. For society, “environmental protection” does not mean everything is fine, to go a long way.
Outer paper used in the production of paper straws of different colors.
The produced paper straws for beverages are placed in rubber baskets waiting to be packed.