Talking about green packaging

In today's commodity economy and society, a large variety of goods are produced. Commodities are products that are produced for exchange, and thus there is a process of commodity circulation. In order to meet the needs of circulation, various types of packaging are used, such as storage and transportation packaging (also known as transport packaging), sales packaging, etc.; packaging is an indispensable part of goods, there is no packaging, circulation and exchange of goods The function is not possible to achieve; unpackaged goods are unthinkable, even if a very small number of so-called shirtless goods, its transportation, storage process, it is not possible not to use packaging, but did not use sales packaging only. It can be said without exaggeration that without packaging, there would be no commodities and there would be no development of our market economy. No commodity can be a good product without good packaging. The view that indiscriminately criticizes packaging and opposes packaging is very wrong, and the viewpoint of despising packaging is also very harmful. Some older friends must remember that in the 1970s and 1980s, our country had just vigorously developed the initial stage of the market economy. In order to change the major losses caused by the poor packaging of China's export goods, we formulated a whole set of rapid changes to us.” "First-class goods, second-class packaging and third-class prices" have achieved remarkable results in their policies and policies. It is true that the reference to first-class goods is indeed debatable, but the case of second-class packaging that leads to third-class prices can be found everywhere, especially when many “bare-shouldered goods” were exported from agricultural and sideline products. After the sale of packaging packaging doubled in value, they also obtained a lot of excess profits, and we will be part of this should have belonged to their own wealth, freely handed over to others. The experience of history deserves our great attention.

In the 1990s, the so-called white pollution that was caused by packaging waste represented by EPS disposable tableware and other serious environmental hazards occurred in China. Since the stability of plastic itself is good, its waste is scattered in the natural world, causing serious problems. Visual pollution, but also caused serious harm to the ecological balance can not be ignored. At first glance, the environmental pollution caused by large amounts of plastic waste is due to the fact that too many plastic packaging materials are used. Therefore, it was proposed that “paper-based plastics” and “wood-based plastics” should be used or restricted to use plastic packaging materials. These views are extremely one-sided and very wrong. They must be given attention and clarified.

"White pollution" has brought serious harm to our environment and brought a huge negative impact on the development of our society. This is a very sad thing, but it also gave us a deep impression. The education class made us realize that human beings can only develop well if they are kind to the environment and protect the environment. Otherwise, they will be punished by nature. If we can really learn from the “white pollution” incident and carry out good green packaging work, “white pollution” will become our rare spiritual wealth.

Green packaging generally has five aspects: First, reduce packaging. Packaging should meet the requirements of protection, convenience, sales, etc., and should be used in the minimum amount. The second is that the packaging should be easy to reuse or easy to recycle. Through the production of recycled products, incineration and utilization of heat energy, composting to improve soil and other measures to achieve the purpose of reuse. Third, packaging waste can be degraded (Degradable). In the end, it does not form permanent waste, so as to achieve the purpose of improving the soil. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and Degradable are the 3R1D principles recognized by the world today for the development of green packaging. Fourth, packaging materials should be non-toxic and harmless to humans and organisms. Packaging materials should not contain toxic elements, germs, heavy metals; or these contents should be controlled below relevant standards. Fifth, packaging products from the collection of raw materials, materials processing, manufacturing products, product use, waste recycling, until the final processing of the entire life of the process should not cause harm to the human body and the environment.

The green packaging originated in the "Our Common Future" issued by the United Nations Environment and Development Committee in 1987. By June 1992, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development adopted the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development and Agenda 21, and it was immediately In the world, a green wave centered on protecting the ecological environment has been set off. "Green Package" has been called "Environmental Friendly Package" or "Eological Package". Green packaging should be: no harm to the ecological environment and human health, recycling and reuse, can promote the sustainable development of the national economy packaging. In other words, the entire process of packaging products from raw material selection, product manufacturing, use, recycling and disposal should meet the requirements of ecological and environmental protection. It includes such contents as conservation of resources, energy, reduction, avoidance of waste generation, easy recycling, recycling, incineration or degradation, and other ecological and environmental protection requirements. Green packaging content With the advancement of technology, the development of packaging will also have new connotations.

With the continuous improvement of people’s environmental awareness, green packaging has become more and more popular with people. It can be described as people’s desires and expectations. But so far, quite a lot of people’s understanding of the true meaning of green packaging is still very one-sided or quite vague. of. Therefore, here we discuss the issue of green packaging with everyone. I believe that the so-called green packaging, in short, is conducive to the sustainable development of human packaging, namely the green packaging. Specifically, the so-called green packaging should have three basic conditions at the same time, namely, safety, hygiene, environmental protection, and resource conservation. If a package does not have or does not fully meet the above three basic conditions, it cannot be called a green package.

Safety means that the packaging must have reliable protection function for the packaged goods. It is a basic function that any package must have, and it has universality;

Hygiene means that the use of packaging must not cause harm to humans and livestock and meet the requirements of relevant hygienic standards. Different commodities have different requirements for the hygienic properties of packaging materials. This requirement is particularly important for foods and drugs.

The relationship between packaging materials and environmental protection must be analyzed from the perspective of the life cycle. From the perspective of environmental protection, packaging materials are required to have good adaptability to environmental protection from the beginning of raw materials, to the production, processing and use of packaging materials, and even to the entire waste disposal process (the entire life cycle) after use. The emphasis here is on the whole process, not just on one or some links, that is, on the governance of “white pollution” and to prevent the pollution of packaging waste from the natural environment. It is very important and important for the development of green packaging. On the other hand, as far as the development of green packaging is concerned, it is far from enough to focus only on "white pollution" - the disposal of packaging waste.

Packaging materials for export goods can only be allowed to enter the importing country if they meet the requirements of the importing country, otherwise the customs of the importing country will not release. Many countries restrict or impose mandatory supervision and management on the packaging materials of imported goods in the form of laws and regulations. For example, the United States stipulates that the packaging of imported goods must not be made of straw, otherwise it will be forcibly destroyed. The packaging of imported goods by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries of Xinxi Temple shall not be hay, straw, bamboo mats, etc. For this reason, our country has done a lot of work. The first is to avoid the use of toxic materials. Pigments, dyes, and paints used on packaging containers or labels should be made of materials that do not contain heavy metals. Adhesives used as bonding materials should not only be toxic or toxic, but also be easily decomposed during separation.

The second is to use recycled materials as much as possible. At present, recycled recycled materials used in the world are mostly recycled paper, recycled cardboard boxes, molded pulp, peak pulp boards, and paper tubes made after recycling waste paper. The third is to actively develop plant packaging materials. Plants can basically reproduce continuously and multiply, and the extensive use of plants generally does not harm the environment, ecological balance and maintenance of resources, and is favored by the international packaging market. Fourth, choose a single packaging material. This eliminates the need to use special tools to disassemble the material. It also saves time for recovery and separation, and avoids the difficulties of recovery and separation due to the use of bonding methods.

The ISO14000 environmental management system international standard stipulates that any product that does not meet the standard can be rejected by any country, so that products that do not meet the standard are excluded from international trade. China's environmental labeling system has fewer product categories and can not meet the needs of foreign trade development. Only by following this international trend and adopting active and effective means to catch up, can we fundamentally protect our country's foreign trade interests. At the same time as typical routes, this standard system is popularized. In addition, international environmental standards should also be studied as soon as possible. The international standards can be translated into national standards through administrative and legislative procedures, and can be used throughout the country. Domestic supporting regulations related to this international standard should also be formulated as soon as possible.

Designers must investigate the specific requirements of the international market for environmentally friendly packaging, such as regulations on environmentally friendly packaging in exporting countries, the depth of consumer environmental protection consumption concepts, green organizational activities, and development trends in environmentally friendly packaging, in order to fully consider these factors in the packaging design. In addition, the design of environmental protection should also be considered in the packaging design. This sign is different from the environmental label and can be designed by manufacturers, suppliers or wholesalers to indicate that a certain product has a certain environmental quality to obtain consumers. The goodwill has reached the goal of expanding marketing.

Appropriate application of packaging not only creates great benefits for the producers of goods, but also brings many benefits to consumers. For example, after rice is packed in plastic film bags, especially in barrier plastic film bags, the shelf life can be increased from about one month in bulk to 3-6 months or even more than 1 year; after vacuum pickling, pickles, etc. The quality of products has a significant increase in price. However, such small packages have the advantages of long storage time and convenient use, and because of their moderate weight, they avoid the spoilage of the rest of the meal after opening, which in turn reduces the consumer’s economy. The burden was therefore generally welcomed by the society. The shirtless packaging of traditional agricultural and non-staple food such as pickled mustard and pickles, and large packages with a weight of 500g or more were becoming fewer and fewer, and some even disappeared. Many off-site sales of agricultural and sideline products benefit from the development of packaging materials and packaging technology. Although the geographical boundaries of the production of agricultural and sideline products are continuously decreasing in the highly developed science and technology, the geographical boundaries still exist. The old saying “South Orange” is still playing a role in many places, for example, it is called “fruit”. The fresh lychees of the king can still only be produced in the south of the subtropical zone, so that only after we use the polystyrene foam insulated storage container, this kind of corruptible fresh fruit can be shared by the whole country and the general public. . And so on, there are many. Through the above example, it is not difficult to see that rational use of packaging is necessary for improving the competitiveness of products, improving the economic efficiency of enterprises, or better satisfying social needs and protecting the rights and interests of consumers. It is believed that the problem is not whether the goods need to be packaged, but how to rationally use the packaging, that is, to develop and apply green packaging.

Reprinted from: China Packaging Machinery Business Network