A video is being shared on social media claiming it as visuals of plastic rice production in a rice mill. This video shows a machine converting plastic sheets into tiny plastic pellets in the shape of grains. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: Video showing plastic rice production in a rice mill.
Fact: The video shared in the post shows the plastic granulation process in a Korea-based company. Several plastic manufacturing companies produce the re-cycled tiny plastic granules which can be used to cushion fragile objects during storage and transportation. This video does not show the production of plastic rice. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
On reverse image search of the screenshots in the video, a similar photo was found in an article published by the Chinese news website ‘Xinhuanet.com’. This video with the attached news of plastic rice is reportedly circulating on social media since 2011. ‘Xinhuanet.com’ reported it as visuals of the plastic granulation process in a plastic manufacturing company. According to the details provided in the article, several plastic manufacturing companies produce these re-cycled plastic pellets using plastic pelletizer machines. These semi-finished raw plastic granules are generally used to cushion fragile objects during storage and transportation. A similar video showing the production of plastic granules in a plastic manufacturing company can be seen here.
Also, when we observed a clearer version of this video shared by another social media user, we could see a plastic granule bag with the name ‘EVA’ written over it. Ethylene Vinyl Acetate (EVA) is one of the plastic granule products manufactured by plastic industries. A similar bag was found on different e-commerce websites. They can be seen here and here. On this bag, we could see the ‘Hanwha Total Petrochemical Company Limited’ logo. The Hanwha Total Petrochemical Co. Ltd is a South Korea based chemical company. The details of the EVA plastic granule production in the Hanwha Total Petrochemical Co. Ltd can be seen here.
In 2016, Nigeria Customs officers seized 102 rice bags of 25 kg, alleging that they are filled with “plastic rice”. Later, the Nigerian Government had officially announced that the seized rice bags do not contain plastic rice in them. Several news websites have reported the concept of ‘Plastic rice’ as a myth. They can be seen here and here. From all these pieces of evidence, it can be concluded that the video shared in the post shows the manufacturing process of plastic granules, not plastic rice.
Even the Food Safety & Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) ruled out plastic rice in its myth busters section.
To sum it up, the video showing the manufacturing process of plastic granules is shared as visuals of plastic rice production in a rice mill.
