Green Packaging: The Inevitable Choice for Chinese Enterprises

In the new century, environmental protection has become a problem that involves the survival and development of every company and individual. With the continuous emergence of new environmentally friendly materials and technologies, green packaging has gradually become a realistic choice. Establishing environmental awareness, keeping up with the trend of international green packaging, and developing green packaging are the inevitable choices for Chinese companies to embrace economic globalization.

First, the current situation and misunderstanding of China's packaging

Most of the packaging is a one-off consumer goods, short life cycle, waste discharge. With the rapid development of China's economy, the increase in the number of commodities and the variety of products, the corresponding packaging design has also been significantly improved. Relevant data show that China’s packaging industry currently has more than 250,000 companies, and its annual production value has increased from 7.2 billion yuan in 1980 to 220 billion yuan in 2000, increasing by nearly 20% every year. However, the development of the packaging industry also consumes a lot of Resources.

At the same time, there is a misunderstanding on the basic concept of packaging design in our country. We believe that product packaging design is only an important means to evoke consumers' desire to purchase, promote sales of goods, and obtain economic benefits. Under the influence of this concept, a large number of packaging designs that only focus on the immediate economic benefits emerged. If the product packaging size, volume is too much, unnecessary multi-level cumbersome packaging, in order to make the goods have a sense of high-end, high-cost printing, in order to reduce the packaging cost, the use of packaging materials that are not easy to recycle and processing are also everywhere. In addition, the industrialization level of China's packaging industry is still low, the use of packaging products and recycling and processing systems are not perfect, and management tools are scarce, resulting in a large number of packaging waste. According to statistics, at present, there are more than 100 million tons of wastes from the packaging industry in the world and 15 million tons in China. The annual amount of packaging waste accounts for about one-third of the city's fixed waste in terms of weight, and accounts for 1/2 of its volume, and the amount of emissions is increasing at a rate of 10% per year, thus making the packaging waste pollute the environment. The problem has become increasingly prominent, causing the world’s public and environmental protection community to attach great importance.

In 1987, the UN Environmental Protection Agency held its first meeting on the protection of the ozone layer in Montreal, Canada. Representatives of 56 countries and regions signed the protocol and for the first time set forth clear requirements and directions for the coordinated development of the packaging industry and the environment. Some countries have successively promulgated relevant laws and regulations regarding packaging and packaging waste. The environmental protection circles of the United States and other countries have put forward three opinions on reducing the quality of packaging wastes. First, they should minimize or use less packaging; second, they should try to recycle packaging. The third is that all those that cannot be recycled can be biodegradable and do not endanger the public environment. For this reason, Germany, France, the United States, the European Community and other countries have successively formulated strict packaging waste restriction laws. There are also more and more environmental protection clauses in the national trade agreements. Green packaging has become a barrier for western developed countries to hinder the entry of developing country goods into the international market, forming a "green trade barrier." If there is no green label product, some developed countries will refuse to import, and may not offer preferential prices and tariffs. After China's accession to the WTO, although China will have an all-round multilateral trade environment, if packaging fails to keep up, it will restrict the development of foreign trade exports and make it more difficult for China's products to reach the international market. Therefore, it is imperative to promote "green packaging" in our country.

Second, the connotation and characteristics of green packaging

Green means natural growing plants. Metaphor means that plants are lush, vibrant, representing life and vitality; green packaging, that is, capable of recycling, recycling, or degrading corrosion, and not to the human body and the environment throughout the product life cycle. Caused by appropriate packaging of public hazards, known as green packaging. Green packaging generally has four aspects, namely: the most provincial materials, the least waste, and save resources and energy; easy recycling and recirculation; waste combustion produces new energy without secondary pollution; packaging materials And self-decomposition, do not pollute the environment. Therefore, the goal of promoting green packaging is to conserve maximum natural resources, minimize the amount of waste and minimize environmental pollution. The connotation of green packaging is also doomed to different characteristics from other packaging:

1 Meets ergonomics

The new century's green packaging will be developed in accordance with the trend of ergonomics, that is, ergonomic packaging, that is, easy to use, reasonable handling, reliable storage, easy interpretation, and meet the special psychological and physiological needs of various groups of consumers, especially the elderly. Group consumers. European and American countries have Ergonomics packages specifically designed for older people or patients.

2 Low emission of harmful substances

The low discharge of green packaging includes two aspects. First, waste water, waste gas and waste discharged from packaging materials containers during production and processing are low. The second is that the additive in the packaging container material should be low or zero during the service life. For example, lead, tin in cans, lead and cadmium in ceramics, lead in printed matter, chromium in lead, mercury in lead, mercury in ethylene, formaldehyde in coating, etc. should meet safety and health standards to ensure consumption. Health.

3 Protecting the Ecological Environment

In the new century, green packaging should consider the balance of the entire eco-environment and choose environmentally friendly packaging containers (materials) and packaging designs. For example, new macromolecule synthesis technology should be used to connect the polymer chain with decomposable The structural unit makes this material photodegradable or biodegradable and bio-photo-degradable. Recently, the State Economic and Trade Commission sent an emergency notice to stop production of disposable foaming utensils, make replacement products, stop "white pollution" and protect the environment.

In addition, the edible packaging material replaces the traditional plastic packaging technology. This technology effectively solves the contradiction between packaging materials and environmental protection. At present, there is an edible packaging film with soybean protein and starch mixed on the market, which can maintain moisture and block oxygen. Maintain the original taste and nutritional value of food. The other is chitosan edible packaging film, which is extracted from shellfish chitosan, combined with lauric acid to produce a homogeneous edible film, has a good freshness, there is also the use of chitosan As raw materials, processed into packaging paper, can be used for instant noodles, condiments, bread, food and other packaging.

The rubbish residue is the waste in the tofu production process. China's annual production capacity is 800,000 tons. It makes full use of this waste resource and uses it as a raw material to make packaging containers. It is ideal for saving raw materials and avoiding it. Environmental pollution, also added value, the process is to mix the amount of bean curd residue, pulp and calcium hydroxide, add water, heated at 5-80 ° C for two hours, and then filtered, the filtered material can be molded In various containers, the container is finally dried. Such containers are high in strength, light weight and impervious to water. The product can be decomposed after it has been buried underground for three months.

4 Saving energy resources

China is a resource-rich country and a resource-poor country, which means that the total amount of resources is large and the per capita amount is small. Therefore, the principle of energy conservation must be followed when developing green packaging. First, raw materials and process technologies that use energy conservation are selected for processing and packaging materials. Second, they are turned into new resources and energy for humanity.

China is a country with a large population and relative lack of resources. Developing "green packaging" is an inevitable choice for China's packaging industry and a trend for the development of packaging design in the new century. Faced with this development trend, we should do the following: First, we must pay attention to the development and replacement of packaging materials. The international packaging industry has entered the era of developing environmentally-friendly materials and replacing traditional materials. China's packaging industry should also actively follow up. The second is to pay attention to the recycling and reuse of packaging waste, save energy and resources. The third is to actively adapt to the global green consumer fashion, promote and guide the development of commodity packaging towards “green packaging”, and allow “green packaging” to be supported by consumers and the whole society. Fourth, the government should take corresponding measures to encourage the use of renewable and recycled packaging products. The fifth is to improve the green packaging regulations and management system as well as the rules and regulations for the recycling and disposal of packaging wastes as soon as possible so that green packaging will become legal.

Commodity packaging design can guide the change of production methods and consumer lifestyles. It plays an important role in the economic and cultural development of the society. In the packaging design, we should consider the design orientation from the perspective of the overall social development, and advocate green. Packaging promotes the coordinated development of economy and ecology and makes society more civilized.

Reprinted from: Enterprise Management Resource Network