Stepping into City of Green Packaging Continued

(D) "Green" breakthrough road

In 2000, an advertisement appeared in France: Garbage was put in from the end of the assembly line, and a potted plant was sent out from the other end. From "unusual" to "clean and imbued with vitality", the image of rubbish has undergone a revolutionary change. The French have worked hard for nearly 30 years.

In this 30-year “garbage revolution”, one of the achievements that the French are proud of is the introduction of the concept of “green packaging”. 80% of waste packaging waste has been recycled and processed in the lives of French residents. 63% of the packaging waste was reprocessed into cardboard, metal, glass bottles and plastics, and 17% was converted into energy.

According to the Deputy Secretary-General of the China Packaging Technology Association and Senior Engineer Che Xiangfu, the so-called “green packaging” refers to packaging that is harmless to the ecological environment and human health, can be reused and recycled, and can promote sustainable development. At present, the “green packaging” determined by developed countries in the world must comply with the “4R+1D” principle—low consumption, development of new green materials, reuse, recycling, and degradability.

Wang Rusong, a researcher at the Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that in 1969, the Coca-Cola Company of the United States launched a study on beverage packaging bottles, trying to determine the type of beverage from the extraction of raw materials to the final disposal of waste, and tracking and quantitative analysis of the entire process. Bottles have the least impact on the environment and the least pressure on the use of resources.

With the intensification of global environmental pollution and the destruction of the ecological environment, the call for attention and development of “green packaging” is increasing.

Today, when you walk into Europe's largest supermarkets and food stores, there are a variety of goods on the shelf, and "green packaging" products abound.

The most typical is the “green packaging” invented by the Swedes— Tetra Pak packaging. The milk, juice and beverages packaged in this “green packaging” can be stored at room temperature for six months, saving a lot of time. Energy consumed for refrigeration. At the same time, this kind of paper packaging can be recycled to make "colored board" furniture, flooring, toys, audio equipment and so on.

Since Tetra Pak is a veritable “green package”, it was quickly promoted throughout Europe and has now become the mainstream of European liquid food packaging.
In Europe, vigorously promoting "green packaging" is already a government act. The "Circular Economy Law" recently enacted by Germany is to ensure the implementation of "green packaging" in the form of laws. The French government stipulates that these packages must have "recycling" environmental protection signs printed on them to remind and warn people of their awareness of environmental protection, repeated use, and energy conservation.

Still a cunning "Cinderella"

Almost every family has this experience. When you buy a phone or a computer, you don't know what to do with the rest of the white foam package. Indeed, as these packagings are not easily recycled, they are very likely to become “white pollution” that is very harmful to the environment.

So, is there a "green package" that can not only damage the environment but also protect the product?

Have! As long as a variety of waste paper into pulp, with the mold made of appropriate thickness, convex and concave size of the filling, to be dried, plastic, can replace the white foam plastic, packaging of electronic products, machinery products, toys, utensils, Handicrafts, even color TVs, refrigerators and other large products. Due to the cross-over of paper fibers, the recycled paper packaging has high strength and abrasion resistance. It is comparable to foamed plastics in terms of packaging performance. More importantly, they are made from recycled paper and can be used after use. Recycling and reuse, even if it is discarded and landfilled, will soon return to nature without polluting the land. It is a kind of “green product” that is harmless to the environment.

Unfortunately, such green packaging is currently not favored in our country. Most of those interested in using them are Sino-foreign joint ventures or wholly foreign-owned enterprises, and most of them are used only on export products. Nobody cares about it.

According to reports, there are a total of five or six companies that produce green packaging products in the Shanghai area. The operating conditions are relatively "dismal". After the largest company is put into production, it is seriously under-produced and its output only accounts for less than 10% of its production capacity. Is the green packaging too expensive to be daunting? According to a person in charge of Tosoh Corporation, the price of recycled paper packaging is similar to that of white foam plastic on the market, and it can even be lower.

However, when the company sent its marketing staff to major companies to sell green packaging, it was almost “wrecked” and ran for eight months. More than 300 companies did not even sign an order. The reason for those manufacturers who refuse “green” is simple: When they are used to “white packaging”, they do not think that there is anything wrong, and they must change their packing channels to purchase goods. It is better to do more than one thing.

According to statistics, China annually “packages” more than 4 trillion yuan worth of domestic merchandise and export goods worth more than 320 billion U.S. dollars. The resources consumed by packaging are enormous. According to relevant data analysis, if beverages and other industries adopt “green packaging”, recycling aluminum cans and other aluminum materials can save 95% of the energy required for new aluminum production; recycling steel and glass waste can save the production of such materials. 50% of the required energy etc.

Therefore, experts appealed that according to China’s actual national conditions, the use of packaging materials and packaging products that are harmful to the environment should be gradually restricted or banned. At the same time, consumers should be aware of green packaging, and gradually change the bad habits of random disposal of packaging waste, so that people When shopping for merchandise, it is necessary not only to care about whether the packaging is exquisite, but also to be concerned about whether the product meets the environmental protection requirements and whether there is a “green packaging” mark on the packaging.

(five) packaging to speak science
In previous years, people were dissatisfied with the backwardness of China's commodity packaging, saying that there were so-called "first-rate products, second-rate packaging, and third-rate prices." In recent years, consumers have complained about the over-packing of some commodities, and "third-rate products, first-class packaging" are also commonplace.

The basic purpose of packaging is to ensure the safety and convenience of the goods in storage and transportation, and it has nothing to do with the improvement of product quality. If the lack of packaging causes the damage or deterioration of the goods, it is naturally undesirable. However, packaging requires resources and costs. This cost is borne by consumers. Therefore, excessive packaging should be condemned by consumers. Some very general merchandise, packaging is very luxurious, obviously one or two layers to solve the problem, but it is necessary to pack six or seven layers; obviously a cigarette box can be installed on the product, but it is like to pack into a brick-size Obviously, paper or plastic packaging can be used, but metal materials are preferred. Some of the goods are “gold and jade, and they are riddled with emptiness,” and the packaging has become a deception to consumers. The goods are in the hands of consumers, and the luxurious packaging is just a pile of garbage. Who is willing to spend too much money to buy these garbage? Moreover, excessive packaging is also a waste of resources, pollution of the environment, and anyone with a sense of social responsibility can not let it go.

Packaging is a science, and reasonable packaging should be scientific packaging. The packaging design should proceed from actual needs, with the purpose of seeking truth from facts, without the sensation of the public; packaging materials should use cheap and readily available items on the premise of satisfying functions and less polluting environment; packaging machinery must be modernized and abandon workshops. Operation.

At present, there is still a considerable gap between China's packaging industry and foreign advanced levels. This difference does not lie in the fact that our product packaging is not luxurious enough, but rather lies in the scientific and technical connotation of packaging itself. Our packaging materials, packaging machinery and equipment, also rely heavily on imports from abroad, products with independent intellectual property rights are rare. This situation not only increases the cost of packaging, but also casts a shadow on the development of the packaging industry. Therefore, in the development of China's packaging industry, the focus should be on the advancement of science and technology. We must strengthen the research on packaging materials and packaging machinery, and proceed from the state of our country's environment and resources to explore a set of packaging models that suit our national conditions. The style of pursuing luxury packaging at the expense of cost and time has come at the brakes.

With the rise of circular economy, the development of recyclable, reusable green packaging has become a global trend. Aiming at this direction and carrying out research on related policy measures and science and technology is an opportunity for China's packaging industry to catch up with the advanced world level. We should seize this opportunity in a timely manner and work hard for the development of China's scientific packaging industry.

Now, all over the country are talking about the concept of scientific development. The development of a scientific, resource-saving and environmental-friendly packaging industry should be the subject of the scientific concept of development. The implementation of the scientific concept of development must begin with a specific piece of work. The packaging industry is one of these specific things.


(6) What are the green packaging materials?
Paper, glass, plastics and metals are the four pillars of modern packaging. The development of green packaging materials is the key to the realization of “green packaging”. At present, there are several types of green packaging materials:

- Reusable and recyclable packaging materials. Polyester PET beverage bottles and PC milk bottles in Sweden and other countries have been reused for more than 20 times; the Netherlands and US companies have recycled 100% of PET containers for recycling.

- Edible packaging materials. Queensland Potato Chip Container Company of Australia has developed an edible container of fried potato chips, which contains acid, spicy and salty tastes, as well as different flavors such as smoked, sauce and chicken flavors. The taste of potato chips. In Japan, an edible packaging is produced using chitosan extracted from shells, and instant noodles, condiments, and the like packaged with the chitosan can be directly put into a pan for cooking.

- Degradable materials. After the degradable plastic packaging material has reached the end of its service life, it can be split, degraded and reduced in the natural environment, and finally reenters the ecological environment in a non-toxic form.