Talking about Sustainable Development Product Packaging Design

In addition to basic properties, life expectancy, low cost, and environmental friendliness, the product itself, to a certain extent, has a significant impact on the product's overall image and product competitiveness. The packaging of products has become more and more important, and has become an important factor in "green trade barriers" in international trade. Green packaging has become an inevitable trend in the future of the packaging industry. This chapter briefly discusses the objective background of green packaging products, the connotation and characteristics of green packaging, and green packaging design.

1 proposed green packaging

The packaging industry is an important part of the national economy. It is estimated that the annual packaging sales of the world is about 50 billion U.S. dollars, and more than 100,000 companies are manufacturing packaging products, employing more than 5 million people and accounting for 1.5%-2.3% of the GNP. In general, the packaging industry in developed countries is the 9th or 10th largest industry in the country. China's packaging industry started from the 1980s and has achieved rapid development for more than 10 years. The packaging industry has formed a relatively complete system and has a considerable scale.

As an industrial sector, the packaging industry is also facing environmental issues without exception. The environmental pollution in the packaging industry is mainly manifested in the various processes of production, storage, consumption, and use of packaging and products, as well as the pollution to the human body and the environment after consumption. The most important, most pernicious, and most public concern is packaging waste. Contamination of material. The United States produces about 150 million tons of municipal waste each year, of which 1/3 is packaging waste. In the European Community countries, annual municipal solid waste is about 100 million tons, of which packaging waste is more than 80 million tons. Japan's municipal solid waste is about 50 million tons, of which 21 million tons are packaging waste. A lot of packaging waste has caused serious environmental pollution. The governments of the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and the Netherlands have all enacted a packaging law that requires manufacturers, importers, and retailers to take responsibility for the recycling, reuse, and remanufacturing of packaging materials.

At present, the annual solid waste production in China is 600 million tons, of which 40% can be used and the rest are difficult to handle. Among these wastes, packaging waste accounts for about 1/3 of the total amount, causing serious pollution to the ecological environment in China.

The plastic packaging material that has been hailed as a “packaging revolution” has been the leader in the packaging field for 30 years. Today, it has become the target of public criticism under the impact of the “green wave” and is called “white pollution”. This is because plastics have the lowest recycling rate. When they are burned, chemicals that damage the ozone layer are released, causing the most serious pollution. At present, the total annual output of global plastics has exceeded 100 million tons, and plastics used for packaging account for about 30% of the entire plastics market. Plastic packaging belongs to the “short-lived” application range of plastics. After consumption, plastic packaging has two directions: First, it becomes municipal solid waste to enter the waste disposal system; the other destination is to become disposable plastic waste. Because plastics do not degrade themselves, both cause pollution to the environment, especially in the latter.

Green packaging is the need of international environmental protection trends [63]. With the impact of the environmental protection surge, consumers have increasingly higher requirements for the packaging of goods, that is, new packaging products must meet the "3R1D principle, sometimes also called the 4R1D principle. Here, 4R1D or 3R1D refers to reduction of packaging material consumption, refill use of packaging containers (Reuse or Refill), recycling of packaging materials (Recycle), regeneration of energy, and degradability of packaging materials. (Degradable). 3R refers to Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. People have gradually shifted their focus on the purchase of affordable and health-oriented products to the desire to purchase environmentally friendly products. Green products have become the first choice for people when shopping, and green product packaging must also meet the green requirements.

Green packaging is one of the important contents of avoiding new trade barriers [64]. With the improvement of people’s environmental awareness, environmental standards and regulations in international trade will become increasingly stringent in the future. Green trade barriers will become the main barriers to international trade. Goods that do not meet the green standards cannot be imported. Green packaging is conducive to breaking through the technical barriers that some new trade protectionists use to set up packaging.

Green packaging is one of the powerful means of international marketing. In the five elements of modern merchandising, namely, Product, Price, Place, Promotion, and Packaging, the role of green packaging in sales is increasing in a world environment that emphasizes environmental protection. Importantly, it is increasingly favored by consumers in all countries. The important content of the 21st century green revolution, the "Green Packaging Revolution" is an important weight for the new round of market competition. To be sure, green packaging products with a strong environmental protection have strong vitality and competitiveness in the international market.

Implementing green packaging is not only the need to protect the environment, but also an important means to enhance the development potential of our packaging industry and improve our competitiveness. It is also one of the important measures for implementing sustainable development.

2 The concept and characteristics of green packaging
With respect to green packaging, there is no unified and widely accepted definition in the academic field. However, there are two points that are widely recognized: First, it is conducive to the regeneration of resources; second, the damage to the ecological environment is minimal. Green packaging refers to packaging that uses environmentally friendly and non-polluting, recyclable or recyclable packaging materials and their products. Green packaging has the following features:
(1) The material is the most provincial, the least waste, and the saving of resources and energy, that is, the green packaging, under the conditions of satisfying protection, convenience, promotion, and providing information functions, should be the least suitable and civilized moderate packaging.
(2) Easy recycling and recycling The repeated use of product packaging and packaging products or the use of recycled waste to produce recycled products, incineration of heat energy, and composting to improve soil, etc., to achieve the purpose of reuse, without polluting the environment, You can make full use of resources.
(3) The packaging material can be self-degraded and the degradation cycle is short in order not to form permanent waste, and the non-recyclable packaging waste must be able to decompose and deteriorate, thereby achieving the purpose of improving the soil. Degradation must also have a short degradation cycle to avoid build up. Currently, all industrial countries in the world attach importance to the development of biodegradable or biodegradable packaging materials.
(4) Packaging materials should be non-toxic and harmless to humans and biological systems. This is mainly to require that packaging materials do not contain toxic elements, halogens, heavy metals, or their contents should be controlled below relevant standards.
(5) The packaging products should not cause environmental pollution during the entire life cycle of the packaged products. That is, the packaged products do not cause environmental pollution from the collection of raw materials, material processing, product manufacturing, use, and waste recycling. No secondary pollution occurs when packaging waste is burned to produce new energy.

Green packaging is one of the key aspects of green products. Vigorously developing green products is the basic requirement for the development of commodity economy. Green products cannot be separated from green packaging. Without green packaging, there is no green product. Green products cannot be called green products without green packaging. $Page break $

3 green packaging design

(1) The development of green packaging materials Green packaging materials are the key to the final realization of green packaging. Paper, glass, plastics and metals are the four pillars of modern packaging. Table 6-1 shows the output of various packaging products in China. As can be seen from the table, the growth of paper products among the four types of packaging materials is the fastest. Paper and plastic in the four kinds of packaging materials are not as easy to break as the glass, not as heavy as iron, and not easy to carry. Paper and plastic are widely used in daily life.
Table 6-1 Output of various kinds of packaging products in China (10 thousand tons)
Table 6-1 the output of all kinds of packing materials in China

Category 1988 1990 1993 1995 95 more than 88 years
Paper products 273.83 336 400 570 +296.17
Plastic products 84.35 87 160 180 +95.65
Glass products 428.62 444 620 650 +221.38
Metal Products 66.94 69 105 120 +53.06
Total 854.74 936 1285 1520 +665.26

Green packaging materials mainly include the following types:

1. Lightweight, thin, non-fluorinated, high-performance packaging materials These materials are the first step in the development of green packaging materials. They are mainly for the development and deep processing of existing packaging materials. Based on the basic functions of packaging, reforming excessive packaging, developing appropriate packaging, minimizing the use of packaging materials, reducing packaging costs, saving packaging material resources, reducing the amount of packaging material waste, and working hard to develop lightweight, non-fluorinated, High-performance new packaging materials. If a new type of magnesium material is used to partially replace metal packaging materials, the resulting small packaging cans have a strong texture, beautiful appearance, and small weight, and can replace tinplate cans as packaging containers for paints, hardware, and butter.

2. Reuse and Recycling of Packaging Materials Recycling and recycling of packaging materials is the most practical and feasible step in the development of green packaging materials at the current stage. It is the most active waste recycling for protecting the environment and promoting recycling of packaging materials. Processing methods, such as beer, beverages, soy sauce, vinegar, and other glass bottles used repeatedly, Sweden and other countries to implement polyester PET bottles and PC bottles can be reused more than 20 times. Recycling is a good way to solve solid waste, and in some countries has become an effective way to solve the source of materials and mitigate environmental pollution. The cost of recycled resin is generally higher than that of the original resin, and its quality and use are not as good as those of the original resin, and are often used as inexpensive materials.

3. Edible packaging materials Edible packaging materials are rich in raw materials, can be eaten, harmless to humans and even beneficial, have a certain strength, etc., and have achieved rapid development in recent years. Edible packaging materials are now widely used in the packaging of foods and pharmaceuticals. The raw materials of edible packaging materials mainly include starch, protein, plant fiber and other natural substances.

4. Degradable Packaging Materials Degradable packaging materials are plastics whose chemical structure changes in a specific environment that causes performance loss in a specific time. The development of biodegradable plastic packaging materials and the gradual elimination of non-degradable plastic packaging materials is an inevitable trend in the development of the packaging industry worldwide. It is one of the hot topics of material research. Degradable plastics can be widely used in food packaging, turnover boxes, general cargo containers, tool packaging, and external packaging boxes for some electromechanical products. Biodegradable plastic packaging materials not only have the functions and characteristics of traditional plastics, but also can be divided and degraded and reduced in the natural environment through the action of microorganisms in the soil and water, or through the action of ultraviolet rays in the sunlight after the mission is completed, and ultimately be non-toxic. The form re-enters the ecological environment and returns to nature. Degradable plastics can generally be divided into biodegradable plastics, biocleavable plastics, photodegradable plastics and biodegradable plastics.

5. Natural bio-packaging materials developed using natural resources Wastes of packaging materials such as plastics, glass, and metals have become an important factor in contaminating the environment, and the high cost of production due to non-renewable resources and high energy consumption. However, the natural biological materials used for packaging such as paper, wood, bamboo materials, sawdust, hemp cotton, wicker, reeds, crop stems, rice straw, wheat straw, etc. can all be easily decomposed in the natural environment without polluting the ecological environment. Resources are renewable and cost is low.

6. To develop paper packaging paper packaging has many advantages, such as relatively abundant resources, easy recycling, and no pollution. Western developed countries have long been using paper packaging to package hamburgers, fast food, beverages, etc., and have the potential to replace plastic flexible packaging. China is also working on the development of fiber membranes instead of plastic films as agricultural films to avoid pollution of farmland. In the proportion of materials used for packaging products in countries all over the world, the use of paper accounted for the first place. According to statistics, the United States is 51%, Japan is 39.6%, and China is 36.7%.

(2) Green Package Design [65]

Product packaging is product life