How to Develop Green Packaging in a New Era

In the 21st century, with the improvement of people's living standards, the requirements for the packaging of goods have become higher and higher. It is not only required that the goods be packaged beautifully, economically, practically, but also be in compliance with environmental protection requirements. At present, the world has set off a green storm centered on the protection of the environment and conservation of resources, and the design criteria of “Environmental Protection No. 1” are increasingly deepening in various industries. With China's accession to the WTO, the packaging industry must be in line with the world today. To adapt to this green environmental storm, China's packaging industry is undergoing a profound process in terms of design concepts, material selection, production processes, product performance, and waste disposal. revolution.

First, the necessity of developing green packaging

In general, green packaging should have the following meanings: First, material conservation, less waste, save energy and resources; Second, easy to recycle; Third, waste can be converted into new energy, no secondary pollution; Fourth, materials Can be degraded in nature without polluting the environment. In a nutshell, an appropriate package that can be reused, recycled or degraded, and that does not cause harm to the human body and the environment throughout the product's lifecycle is called green packaging. The continuous growth and development of the packaging industry in China has enabled the packaging materials to have a broad space for development. Many materials such as paper, plastic, metal and glass are widely used in various packaging. However, while packaging brings convenience and benefits to people, it also causes serious damage to the environment in which human beings live. On the one hand, packaging consumes a lot of energy and resources. On the other hand, increasing packaging waste has become second only to humans. Water pollution, pollution of marine lakes is not the fourth source of air pollution. Based on the sustainable development strategy, it is of special significance to develop green packaging materials and develop green packaging extensively.

Second, how to develop green packaging

1, vigorously increase and develop green packaging materials

a. To rapidly increase paper packaging and improve the quality and grade of paper packaging materials, the key is to increase the proportion of wood pulp. To this end, the integrated development of forest, pulp and paper should be implemented as soon as possible.

b. Actively promote the development of metal packaging, so that the glass packaging to high-grade, lightweight development.

c. Balanced development of plastic packaging, implementation of development in parallel with environmental protection, where alternative substitutes are encouraged, degradable plastics should be used for disposable plastic packaging that is difficult to recycle or economically uneconomical.

d. Develop natural plant fiber materials, vigorously develop China's abundant bamboo packaging; encourage the development of reed, bamboo, and bagasse pulping and papermaking, improve pulp molding quality and other product quality using plant fibers as raw materials, such as corn stover Raw materials produce biodegradable plastic film, starch and plant fibers as raw materials, producing expanded "foam" materials.

2, pay attention to the choice of packaging materials

In the selection of packaging materials, traditional packaging design mainly focuses on the nature of the research materials, the use behavior and the degree of environmental impact, and requires the packaging made of the selected materials to meet the protection, advertising, and descriptive nature of the products. May reduce package production costs. The impact on the environment caused by the production, use, and disposal of packaging materials and packaging has not been given adequate attention, resulting in a great waste of resources and serious pollution to the environment. Therefore, based on the sustainable development strategy of packaging design, in the selection of packaging materials must be its environmental performance as an important aspect to study. It is necessary to consider the three elements of material performance, economy, and the environment (including resources, energy, and environmental protection) from the perspective of sustainable development strategies; that is, we must fully consider the green characteristics or environmental coordination of materials, and the performance and cost of materials. The balance between the relationship.

(1) Use green packaging materials

This is the fundamental way to ensure a sustainable development strategy from a material perspective. Because green materials have environmental compatibility, the use of green packaging materials not only can effectively reduce the harmful effects of packaging waste on the environment, but also aims at high efficiency in the use of raw materials and energy in the entire process of packaging production, use, and recycling. Inspired by the strategy of sustainable development, various kinds of green packaging materials have mushroomed and a large number of traditional packaging have been replaced by green packaging.

Paper is currently the most widely used green packaging material. Paper's green characteristics are good, raw materials are widely sourced, and it is easily corrupted in the natural environment. It can be used to recycle recycled paper and can also be used as a plant fertilizer. It is the earliest application of green packaging materials. Now, the recycling technology of paper has become more mature. Waste paper and waste paper bins can be remanufactured into secondary products of different qualities and applications according to their color, composition, etc., and the recycling rate is high. A typical variety currently widely used for packaging is pulp molded honeycomb paperboard products. In particular, molded pulp products are used to replace refractory plastics and are widely used in tableware, poultry egg trays, fruit trays, industrial trays, food and semi-finished packaging, and medical device packaging.

Biodegradable plastics are considered to be the most promising green packaging materials. Biodegradable plastic is a new type of plastic that can be degraded and disappeared in the natural environment after being discarded, and does not pollute the environment. As traditional plastic packaging materials are discarded, they are not easily degraded under natural conditions and are difficult to absorb for the natural world, causing great pollution to the environment. Therefore, both domestic and foreign countries attach great importance to the study of plastics that can be naturally degraded under photosynthesis or biological action, and are used to make packaging materials that are not agricultural films. After being discarded, this new type of plastic can be embrittled and degraded into fragments through photosynthesis in a certain period of time. After being eroded by nature, it enters the soil and is digested by microorganisms (biochemical action), and no longer causes environmental pollution.

(2) Minimize the types of materials used

In order to simplify the manufacturing process of packaging and facilitate the disassembly, recycling, classification and reuse of packaging, packaging design should try to avoid the use of a variety of different materials. For complex packaging, it is advisable to adopt a structure design that is easy to disassemble and separate. When designing metal containers, different metal welding structures should be avoided in the structure. Explosive boxes should be designed as separate and separate subdivided boxes, and each independent sub-tank should only use one type of box. material. For example, Whirlpool's German packaging engineers reduced the amount of materials used for packaging from 20 to 4 and, while meeting basic functional requirements, not only reduced material costs, but also reduced the cost of handling packaging waste by half.

(3) Choose materials that are easily recycled and recycled

If packaged waste is easy to recycle and regenerate, it will not only reduce its environmental pollution, but also facilitate the recycling of materials, save resources and energy, reduce waste disposal costs, and have obvious social and economic benefits. For example, wooden pallets are still widely used in current packaging. If the double-layer corrugated cardboard made of recycled materials is used instead, the weight will be only 25% of the wooden pallets under the same strength conditions, which can not only greatly reduce the transportation cost, but also reduce the transportation costs. What is important is that the corrugated cardboard can be recycled and regenerated many times after being discarded, which can save a lot of wood and reduce the abuse and destruction of forest resources.

(4) Try to use less coated or coated materials

In the modern packaging design, in order to make the package more beautiful and corrosion resistant, a large amount of coated material is used. This not only brings difficulties to the recovery and reuse of materials after the products are scrapped, but most of the coatings themselves are toxic. In particular, the coating and plating process also brings great pollution to the environment. If the coating is volatile and toxic solvent gas, when it is electroplated, it will produce waste liquid such as chromium and other heavy metals and waste residue pollution. Therefore, as far as possible, uncoated and plated packaging materials should be used.

3, the treatment of packaging waste

The recycling rate of packaging waste in China is still very low according to the statistics in 1996. There is still a big gap between the developed countries and industrialized countries, and there is still a great potential for excavation. In the “Ninth Five-Year Plan”, China Packaging Association and China National Packaging Corporation proposed that the total recycling rate of packaging products reached 43% by the end of this century, in which paper packaging reached 40%, plastic packaging reached 20%, glass packaging reached 50%, metal packaging The goal of reaching 60% has not yet been reached. Therefore, we must establish and improve the recovery system and use price levers to increase recycling prices. (The current low recycling price of waste packaging, which leads to a reduction in recycling volume, and waste of resources, should attract the attention of related parties.) ). We must also pay attention to the recycling of recycled products, sorting some of the recycled products into raw materials, and then making new packages. Others can also be used to transform parks and stadiums into runways. The remainder can also be heated to generate energy.

4, simplify the packaging, so that appropriate packaging

Excessive packaging creates a waste that also causes unnecessary pollution. In the world, many countries have advocated moderate packaging and formulated many corresponding regulations. For example, the United Kingdom imposes restrictions on the degree of complexity and luxury of packaging of goods. Exceeding the requirements will result in heavy penalties and tax increases, forcing businesses to simplify packaging and reduce environmental pollution.

The reduction of packaging design from the source to reduce packaging waste is the world’s first choice for green packaging. Such as: improve the material performance, so that the bottle container in the increase in strength at the same time, thin-walled lightweight, through the development of materials technology, the development of modified materials, so that plastic packaging further lightweight thin film. However, in China, there is a large amount of abuse of packaging materials in the sales packaging. Designing excessive packaging or even deceiving packaging is contrary to the trend of environmental protection in the world. Measures should be taken to provide economic sanctions. Simplifying the new trend of packaging can greatly reduce packaging waste and preserve the environment. We should promote it.