Environmental protection gives birth to green packaging

The cause of the rise of green packaging

With the rapid development of the global economy and the continuous improvement of human living standards, the environmental destruction and pollution of solid waste and the waste of the earth's resources are among the major environmental issues faced by the international community today. The United Nations Environment Programme has listed solid waste disposal as a major global environmental issue. The packaging waste is an important part of solid waste. People are more and more clearly aware of its harm to the environment, so green packaging has become the research and development direction of the packaging industry.

In addition, with the improvement of human environmental awareness, the mode of thinking, values, and concepts of consumption have also changed with the development of the times. In business contacts, when people buy goods, they pay more attention to the product's environmental standards, which has led to green vegetables, green food, environmental protection cars, environmental protection refrigerators, environmental protection apparel, and green packaging. It can be said that with the development of the process of world economic integration, green products in the 21st century will go deep into every link of every walk of life. People’s demands for environmental protection and improvement of their own quality of life will be further enhanced. Green products must be equipped with them. Adapt to the green packaging to truly form a complete green product. In addition, with the development of industrial modernization and the excessive exploitation of the Earth’s resources by humans, the global environment is deteriorating. In order to protect the quality of land and human resources and the economic interests of the country, a series of environmental treaties and agreements have been established in various countries and regions. Developed one after another. According to the WTO survey, there are more than 150 multilateral environmental agreements in the world, a considerable part of which contains trade clauses, and the WTO has also established a Trade and Environment Committee to deal specifically with issues related to trade and the environment. It can be said that the issue of environmental protection will become the main issue of the century's international economic and trade cooperation. Therefore, the development of green packaging will become increasingly important.

Green packaging basic content

With the heavy responsibility of reducing resource waste and protecting the environment, the packaging industry must establish innovative ideas and strengthen environmental awareness. When researching new packaging materials, new packaging technologies, designing new types of packaging products, and formulating new standards and new regulations, it is necessary to consider the development of green packaging that can reduce resource consumption and waste emissions, can easily be recycled, and can be self-degraded.

Therefore, green packaging, also known as environmentally-friendly packaging, not only serves the traditional functions of preservation, protection, information about interior contents, identifiability, and promotion, but also has the following three functions:

The first is the centrality of packaging in economic development; the second is packaging's responsibility for environmental protection; the third is packaging's innovation in efforts to improve human settlement conditions (quoted from W.C. Fellam, Present and Future of Packaging, 1996 IPC96. The International Packaging Conference discussed the 3R principle of packaging waste disposal, ie, reduction, reuse, recycling, which is specifically explained as a reduction in the number of uses and materials used in the packaging, and secondly, when technical and economic conditions permit. , priority is to use reusable packaging; third, to develop recyclable packaging, recycling methods do not pollute the environment, but also to regenerate other energy. According to the 3R principle of packaging waste disposal,

Green packaging should generally have the following aspects:

Under the condition of guaranteeing the packaging function, the materials used are the least, and the waste is the least. It is a kind of moderate packaging;
The packaging production process has little or no environmental pollution;
Packaging products do not react directly or indirectly with contents, and are harmless to humans and organisms.
Packaging waste should be easily recycled and reused, and it can be quickly degraded without involving pollution. When incinerated, it can generate new energy and not pollute the environment.

In short, from the perspective of system theory, green packaging is a systematic project. It includes various aspects such as packaging containers, packaging materials, packaging technology, production processes, and waste disposal. It is a new development in the packaging discipline. Research on green packaging should continue to innovate, develop new types of energy-saving and environmental-friendly materials, improve the testing level of evaluating the performance of packaging materials, and establish corresponding standardized working procedures. At the same time, packaging machinery must be updated to the next level, packaging design and printing and decoration should contain more information and characteristics of the times. In addition, the corresponding laws and regulations for green packaging, as well as the education and training of talents will involve all aspects of each aspect. Therefore, only by paying attention to and earnestly developing the green packaging system project can we achieve the green connotation represented by green packaging and continue to develop in international trade and economic exchanges.

Green Packaging International Trade

First, green packaging is increasingly becoming a new non-tariff barrier - green barriers

Since the 1990s, important changes have taken place in trade barriers. For the purpose of protecting limited resources, the environment and human health, developed countries have formulated a series of new standards to limit the import of foreign products and services. The relevant agreement of wto stipulates that no country shall be prevented from taking the necessary measures to protect the life and health of humans and organisms and protect the environment. However, this has provided the basis for the developed countries to build green barriers. At present, there are mainly two types of “environmental trade barriers” and “health and quarantine barriers”. In 1998, the European Union unilaterally banned the entry of wooden crates and wooden pallets that had not been subject to sanitary quarantine in China. The economic and trade losses in this country alone amounted to several hundred billion yuan. Then it was announced in 2000 that wooden crates and wooden pallets imported from China, Canada, Southeast Asia, and the United States must be subjected to fumigation. The developed countries have set green packing standards too high and too strict to increase the threshold to prevent developing countries from entering the domestic market with high quality and low price products, in order to offset the advantages of developing countries and protect their economic interests.

In 2000, the EU took more actions in environmental trade barriers, requiring home appliances, electronic products, and telecommunications supplies to recover more than 60%. The recovery rate for individual products was as high as 75%, of which 85% of packaging products were recycled. This rule will be formally implemented in January 2006. Therefore, in recent years, there have been more and more trade frictions caused by packaging problems. For example, disposable cutlery in China has been banned from exporting to Europe and the United States due to the lack of “environmental signs”. Many goods exported to Europe and the United States also have to pay high packaging waste disposal fees, etc. . With China's accession to the WTO, the impact of foreign green barriers on China's export trade will become more severe. Therefore, domestic enterprises must raise awareness of environmental protection, step up research on the laws and regulations governing foreign green barriers, and formulate corresponding countermeasures in light of our actual conditions.

II. Environmental Marking System and International Environmental Management Standards - ISO14000

The environmental sign, also known as the green sign, means that the government department or public body issues a certificate to the enterprise according to certain environmental standards to prove that the production, use, and disposal of its products are in compliance with the environmental protection requirements, are harmless to the environment or have extremely low damage, and have Facilitate the recycling of resources. There are three types of environmental labels: Type I, Type II, and Type III. The environmental sign is an eco-friendly sign. According to the changes in the national conditions of each country, there are different standards for Type I signs. The type II logo is an information symbol of the nature of the "company statement." Enterprises and institutions formulate specific methods for environmental protection in accordance with their own characteristics, and open them to the society in the form of logos. The type III mark is a product quality mark and shows the environmental characteristics of the products of enterprises and institutions by means of specific data. Countries such as China and Japan use Type I signs, and the United States and the European Union and other countries use Type III signs. Since Germany first introduced this system in 1978, more than 40 countries (mostly developed countries) and regions have implemented this system. Since its implementation in 1994, China has issued several batches of products and companies that have received environmental labels.

If a product or a company has achieved environmental labeling, it is equivalent to obtaining a “pass” to enter the national market for implementing environmental labeling systems. Otherwise, the market competitiveness of the product will be severely reduced. Environmental labels are increasingly becoming the sign of enterprises to improve efficiency and establish an image. International Environmental Management Standards - ISO14000 is the standard set by the Technical Committee for Environmental Management of the National Standardization Group (ISO), and the ISO14000 series includes the ISO14000 Environmental Management System --- Guidelines and Use Specifications ISO14000 Environmental Management System --- Principles, System, and Use (Standard) and other 100 standards are divided into the following six sub-systems: Environmental Management System; Evaluation of the company's environmental behavior assessment and environmental audit and supervision; ISO14000 life cycle assessment; Evaluation of product environmental signs and product standards in the environmental guidelines.

The objectives of the international environmental management standard ISO14000 series are: to standardize the environmental protection behaviors of enterprises, institutions, and social organizations, to reduce the environmental damage caused by production activities, to maximize the conservation of resources, to improve the quality of the environment, to harmonize environmental protection with economic development, and to achieve Continuous development. The basic contents of the ISO14000 audit certification are: the establishment of an environmental management system; the company has a good environmental protection status and environmental performance; the company's production activities comply with environmental protection regulations; and the company has a complete environmental report. In addition to following the general principle of quality management system, the ISO14000 series pays more attention to the protection of environmental quality. For modern enterprises, only the emphasis on product quality and the establishment of an environmental management system can adapt to the rapid development of the market economy. Passing ISO14000 certification is also a sign of improving corporate image and market competitiveness.

In short, the environmental labeling system and the international environmental management standard, the ISO14000 series, are the same as the international quality management standard ISO14000 series, and it is a mandatory international standard. It will play an increasingly important role in the future of international trade and promote it effectively. Humanity realizes the purpose of protecting Earth's resources and human settlements. At the same time, it will also avoid the occurrence of repeated economic disputes in countries that have undergone repetitive examinations and registrations, thereby eliminating international trade barriers to some extent. Therefore, at the time of China's accession to the WTO, it is necessary to strengthen the propaganda and training of knowledge in this area. The application and certification of environmental management and environmental protection signs for domestic enterprises must strive for breakthroughs in a short period of time.

Measures to develop green packaging

First, formulate corresponding policies and regulations from the perspective of environmental protection and green packaging, guide, support and protect green packaging companies and their products. At the same time, enterprises that do not meet the development direction of green packaging should be rectified or shut down and transferred. When formulating laws and regulations, it is necessary to learn from the advanced experience of developed countries, improve work efficiency and technological level, and also combine scientific research with packaging packaging and environmental protection. We must ensure that legislation is comprehensive and rigorous and in line with international standards; we must implement strict regulations to ensure the healthy development of green packaging.

Second, to increase the research on packaging and the environment, especially the research and development of new packaging materials, determine the direction of research on economized, recyclable, biodegradable and available types, and vigorously develop technical tests and appraisals of green packaging.

Third, starting from the packaging design, establish an environmentally friendly design ideas, and increase the processing and application of packaging waste, improve the recycling rate of packaging, development of turnover packaging, and strengthen the research and application of packaging recovery and recycling and comprehensive utilization of technology.

Fourth, increase the promotion of the environmental sign system, encourage and support enterprises to carry out ISO14000 certification and environmental label certification.

Source: China Packaging Industry