Future development of green packaging printing

I am very pleased to attend the “2004 Gravure Printing Summit Forum” held in Beijing by the Indogravure Printing Subcommittee of the China Press Association. I was invited by the conference to give a special speech on packaging printing and environmental protection. Packaging and printing plays an important role in protecting products, beautifying goods, promoting corporate culture, and realizing the storage, preservation, transportation, sales, and use of goods. At the same time, it also beautifies people's lives and meets the growing material culture of the general public. Demand promotes and stimulates consumption.

The packaging and printing framework serves as a bridge between the production, sales, and consumption of commodities. It plays a non-negligible role in enhancing the added value of commodities and enhancing their competitiveness. In 2003, the total output value of China's printing industry was 190 billion yuan, accounting for 2.9% of the world's total output value of the printing industry (US$780 billion), and it accounted for 1.10 trillion yuan of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2003. 6%. For more than 20 years, the packaging industry in China has developed rapidly. The total output value of the packaging industry in the country increased from RMB 7.2 billion in 1980 to RMB 250 billion in 2003, an increase of 34.7 times, and the average annual growth rate was 16.7%. From 1980 to 1997, its growth rate was much higher than the growth rate of GNP during the same period. After 1998, the average growth rate of the packaging industry tended to be normal: about 10%. It is estimated that by 2005, the national packaging industry's total output value will reach 320 billion yuan: in 2010, it is expected to reach 450 billion yuan, and profits and taxes will be 32 billion yuan.

With the coordinated, rapid and steady development of China’s economy, the per capita GDP has exceeded US$1,000, and the people’s lives have changed from subsistence to enjoyment and development, and the packaging and printing industry is playing an increasingly important role in the entire national economy. The role. However, on the whole, China's packaging and printing industry has not yet become an important pillar industry of the national economy. It is not yet an important part of the information industry. At the same time, the waste of resources, environmental pollution, and unsustainable sustainability that are exposed in the packaging and printing industry. The problem of development cannot be ignored.

First, the packaging industry

(I) Overpackaging

Packaging has two functions. One is to protect the goods from damage and deterioration during manufacture, transportation, warehousing and sales. The second is to beautify, propagate and add value to goods. If one-sided exaggeration of the second function of packaging, it is easy to cause over-packaging. For example, some commodities are golden and ugly. They are ugly, and they look good and they are unreadable: Some are bulky and empty in the abdomen. There are only a small number of products in the huge packaging boxes: Some seem grand and rich. Decent, in fact, its packaging is higher than the cost of goods for sale; more similar to the "bird's nest, no bird's nest, honey, no honey," the fake, with "three pounds of walnuts, four catties shell" to describe it is not an exaggeration. More than 70% of all kinds of packaging waste are over-reduced packaging.

Now, excessive packaging has become a source of environmental pollution that cannot be ignored. It is an issue that must be addressed and urgently addressed. There are three major shortcomings in the over-packaging of goods nowadays:

One is that excessive packaging has caused waste of resources, environmental pollution, and a lot of waste. For every 10 million boxes of mooncakes produced, at least 400-600 trees with a DBH of 10 cm must be consumed. Objective To use only 240,000 tons of paper per year for packaging boxes in China, equivalent to cutting off 1.68 million trees with thick bowls. The rapid disappearance of forests has caused serious soil erosion, desertification, and other phenomena in the rivers and rivers, and the ecological functions of the region. Disorders are occurring. China's total terrestrial water resources are 280 million cubic meters, ranking sixth in the world, but only 2,200 cubic meters of water resources per capita, only 1/4 of the world's average level, ranking 88th in the world. Water caused the company to stop production and reduce industrial output value by 100 billion yuan. Now that there is already a mass of forests turned into wrapping paper, overpacking has added to the depleted natural resources. At the same time, all kinds of exquisite and luxurious packaging, turned to consumers instantly become rubbish, lost its value. Of the nearly 3 million tons of garbage produced in Beijing each year, about 830,000 tons of various goods are packaged, of which 600,000 tons are over-packaging items that could have been saved. Of the solid waste that can be comprehensively utilized in China and renewable resources that can be recycled and reused, more than 50 billion yuan has not been recycled. After the Mid-Autumn Festival this year, only the discarded moon cake boxes in Guangzhou can tile 2,500 football fields. Apart from the iron boxes in these moon cake boxes, most paper cartons are thrown into the garbage compressor together with ordinary household waste. Compressed and shipped to a landfill. This way of handling did not really make the value of the moon cake box come true. To a certain extent, it is purely a waste.

The second is infringement of the rights and interests of consumers. Excessive packaging causes the cost of goods to rise and is passed on to consumers by merchants. For example, a mooncake produced by a company can be divided into 6 yuan, 8 yuan and 12 yuan in bulk. After the same moon cakes are put into cartons, wooden boxes, tin boxes, and bamboo baskets, they turn into 50 yuan. 80 yuan, 120 yuan, 300 yuan a box. According to statistics, China's current packaging expenses have accounted for more than one-third of the total cost of moon cake production, and the annual cost for moon cake packaging has reached 2.5 billion yuan. "Wool is on the sheep." This huge amount of packaging expenses will ultimately be paid by consumers.

The third is to encourage unfair competition. Now, a lot of energy of many businesses is not spent on improving product quality. Instead, they are chasing the packaging of “high grade” and “high grade” blindly. The serious competition ratio not only harms the interests of consumers, but also is not conducive to the society. The development of productivity.

Developed countries have long been restricting over-packaging from the perspective of legislation. Many countries' laws stipulate that the packaging cannot be larger than 1/10 of the volume of the packaged goods. Germany, which first advocated the recycling of packaging materials, has formulated the “recycling economy law”. Denmark has taken the lead in implementing the “green tax” system. Many countries require manufacturers, importers, and retailers to take responsibility for recycling and remanufacturing packaging materials. Excessive packaged goods are illegal in South Korea. In order to implement the restrictions on the ratio and the number of layers of the goods, the Korean government will check the packaging of the goods, reward the streamlined packaging, and impose fines on over-packaged goods. The phenomenon of over-packaging that has become increasingly rampant in China has caused concern and concern in all walks of life. Ma Kai, director of the National Development and Reform Commission, said in a recent meeting of the China Circular Economy Development Forum held in Shanghai in 2004 that China will introduce relevant measures to prevent overpacking of moon cakes from next year.

In view of the current phenomenon of excessive over-packaging, I believe that the following two points should be included in the rectification:

First, limit the spread of excessive packaging through laws and regulations. To sum up, there are mainly the following three methods: First, the standard control, that is, set limits on the volume of the packaging, the gap between the packaging and the goods, the number of packaging layers, the ratio of the packaging cost and the value of the goods, etc.: II: It is an economic means to control, such as non-paper packaging and packaging that does not meet the requirements for recycling, imposes a packaging tax, directs consumers to select simple packaging through garbage metering charges, and thirdly, increases the responsibility of producers and stipulates that the producers of goods are responsible for recycling. Commodity packaging can usually use the deposit system to entrust relevant commercial organizations to recycle packaging. In order to facilitate recycling, producers will actively choose package designs that use less material and are easy to recycle.

The second is what I want to talk about next, and actively promote green packaging.

(b) Green packaging

1. Definition and misunderstanding

The so-called “green packaging” refers to packaging that is harmless to the ecological environment and human health, can be reused and reused, and can promote sustainable development. Developed countries in the world have already established the “3R+1D” principle of green packaging, namely low energy consumption, new green, reuse, recyclability and energy degradation.

In the understanding of green packaging, there is a misunderstanding that it is the “green packaging” that thinks that packaging waste is easy to handle or is made of biodegradable materials; there is a general opinion that all paper packaging is “green” ", such understanding is not comprehensive. The “3R+lD” principle for the development of green packaging accepted by the world today is the implementation of packaging reduction. Packaging should meet the requirements of protection, convenience, sales, etc., and should be used in a minimum amount; packaging should be easy to reuse ( Reuse), or easy to recycle (Recycle), through the production of recycled products, incineration of heat energy, composting to improve soil function, etc., to achieve the purpose of reuse: packaging waste can be degradabc, do not form permanent waste, and then achieve The purpose of improving the soil; packaging materials should be non-toxic and harmless to humans and organisms. Packaging materials should not contain toxic elements (such as halogens, heavy metals), or the content should be controlled below the relevant standards. These four points are the requirements that green packaging must have. Another point is that the packaging products should not be harmful to humans and the environment from the collection of raw materials, material processing, manufacturing products, product use, waste recycling, and ultimately to the final disposal of the life process. This is the highest requirement for green packaging based on the life cycle analysis methodology and system engineering perspective.

Due to the limited forest resources in China, the pollution problems caused by papermaking are difficult to solve in a short time. If the full implementation of the paper-based plastic packaging is not practical and environmentally friendly, a complete ban on plastic packaging will result in greater pollution.

2. Status quo at home and abroad

In 1981, the Danish government first introduced the "Recycling of Packaging Containers Act." The European Community held a conference in Dublin in June 1990 to put forward the concept of “environmental protection” and formulated the Waste Transport Law, which stipulated that packaging waste could not be shipped to other countries. Countries should take responsibility for waste. In December 1994, after the European Community issued the "Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive" and the "Dublin Declaration," Western European countries successively formulated relevant laws and regulations. Responding to Europe, the United States, Canada, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, non-Russian, Brazil and other countries and regions have also formulated packaging laws and regulations.

Since 1979, China has promulgated four special laws and eight resource laws, including the "Environmental Protection Law of the People's Republic of China," "Prevention and Treatment of Solid Waste," "Water Pollution Control Law," and "Air Pollution Prevention and Control Law." More than 30 environmental protection regulations expressly regulate the management of packaging waste.

3. Necessary measures

China's green packaging industry started late, but it has developed rapidly. At present, there are still problems in the industry, such as the one-sidedness of the understanding of green packaging and the unbalanced development. To vigorously develop China's green packaging industry, we must start with the following three aspects:

The first is to strengthen the development and development of green packaging materials. The emergence of new packaging materials such as paper packaging materials and edible, biodegradable, and recycling applications has eased the pressure on the ecological environment, reduced the depletion of increasingly exhausted petroleum resources, reduced environmental pollution, and solved internationally prohibitive use of non-degradable materials. Packaging materials and the "green barriers" to China's exports. The extensive production and use of green packaging materials is of great significance both from the perspective of environmental protection, from the perspective of sustainable development of the national economy, and from the perspective of high-tech packaging materials technology. The scientific development concept embodied in the packaging and printing industry.

The second is to optimize green packaging design. Packaging design should follow the design concept of harmless, ecological, and energy-saving, starting with material selection, structure and function, manufacturing process, packaging method, storage form, product use, and waste disposal, and comprehensively evaluate the use of resources. Environmental impact and solutions.