Report raises fears over plastic foam dinnerware
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E-mail Shanghai Daily, May 20, 2013
Plastic foam dinnerware, allowed to be used again after a 14-year ban was lifted recently, is being made from industrial waste and toxic chemicals in a city in south China's Guangdong Province, according to an undercover newspaper investigation.
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Plastic foam dinnerware, allowed to be used again after a 14-year ban was lifted recently, is being made from industrial waste and toxic chemicals in a city in south China's Guangdong Province. [File photo] |
More than 10 million plastic foam disposable food containers are made each month in one small factory in Guangdong's Dongguan City, where most of the plastic foam products are made, according to the Hangzhou-based City Express.
The products are made from industrial waste and phosphor powder, a toxic substance which can make the items look whiter but may also cause cancer, the newspaper said.
The lifting of a ban on the sale and use of disposable food containers made of plastic foam on May 1 sparked controversy.
However, the National Development and Reform Commission said the ban had ended as plastic foam could now be recycled to become raw materials in construction, paints and stationery.
A decision to ban plastic foam dinnerware was imposed in 1999 over pollution concerns.
But the newspaper said production had never stopped in a number of small factories in Dongguan. There are up to 200 companies in China allowed to make plastic foam products and 10 of them are in the city. Today, Dongguan factories produce over 70 percent of such products on the national market, the newspaper said.
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