Dissertation Proposal

Investigation of Sustainable Procurement Principles for Building a Reverse Supply Chain in the Waste Plastics Industry in China Msc IBM

Chapter 1 Introduction

1.1 Background
After the open policy in 1979, China has been playing the a greater role in the world’s manufacturing sector, the rapid growth of the Chinese economy has resulted a huge demand of the raw materials and also has brought in a large market for foreign recyclable resources. Plastic industry is one of the most important industries in the Chinese economy; the import of the waste plastics materials has caused a series of problems because of the nonstandard operation in the supply chain.
1.1.1 The demand of the plastic raw material in China and the lack of domestic  supply
China is the world’s second biggest plastic products producer, According to the China National Light Industry Council (CNLIC) (www.clii.com.cn), the output of the plastic products in 2005 is 25,000,000 ton, and the figure is increasing by 10% every year during the next 5-10 years. Among the 20 light industries in China, the plastic products industry has managed to be the second of the industry output, the second of the industry production value and the second of the exportation delivery value. Plastic industry has already been one of the most important in the Chinese National econom英语论文网 【http://www.51lunwen.org】y. The development of the plastic products industry brings the huge demand of the plastic raw materials, although the domestic output is also increasing, the domestic supply of the plastic material can not meet the massive demand. The consumption of the synthetic resin has already outdone 35,000,000 ton in 2005. According to the Chinese Customhouse (www.hgtj.cn), in 2006, China imported 21,310,166 ton of synthetic resin (included waste plastic).   
1.1.2 The advantages of using the recycled plastic materials
Due to the continuative raise of the crude oil price in the recent years, the price of the plastic raw material has rocketed up. The data from TianJin custom shows that(www.tianjin.customs.gov.cn), in 2004, the average price of the virgin plastic raw material has reached 1,166 USD per ton, 36.8% higher then in 2003, the profit for the plastic industry has become lower and lower. However, the production cost of using the recycled material is only 50% of using the virgin material; this advantage causes the massive import of the recyclable plastic in order to reduce the costs. In 2004, there are 195,000 ton recyclable plastic be imported through the Tainjin Port with the total value of 53,980,000 USD, which is 1.3 times and 1.6 times higher than the year of 2003. Another advantage is using the recycled plastic materials is a solution to solve the shortage of the raw material supply. Additionally, the recycling is more environmental protection then 本文来自：英语论文网 【http://www.51lunwen.org】