Core reading

The high price of moon cakes, the alienation of properties, and the deep social causes, and the luxurious packaging, are both external manifestations, and their existence exacerbates this variation. Stop the luxury atmosphere and promote conservation awareness. You can't just focus on overpacking, let alone overpackaging. How does the current situation of "standards and no laws" in the packaging field change? How long is the packaging legislation road and what should I do? To regulate the packaging of public expenditure products, define the boundaries between gifts and common goods, and what should the packaging law do?

Relevant provisions of the Circular Economy Law

It is difficult to manage excessive packaging by principle

On August 26 this year, the draft circular economy law was first submitted to the 29th meeting of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress for deliberation. With respect to issues such as over-packaging and luxury packaging, the circular economy law draft made relevant regulations at the legislative level.

Sun Youhai, director of the bill office of the National People's Congress Environment and Resources Protection Committee and head of the drafting team of the Circular Economy Law, told reporters that the draft circular economy law submitted for review was aimed at overpackaging and other issues. When units and individuals design product packaging, Product packaging standards must be implemented to prevent excessive packaging from wasting resources and contaminating the environment.

“Although the circular economy law will regulate the excessive packaging problem, it cannot be solved by this law alone.” Zhang Tianzhu, professor of the Department of Environmental Science and Engineering at Tsinghua University and head of the expert group on draft circular economy law, told the reporter that the circular economy law The draft is based on the principle of reducing the consumption of resources and facilitating recycling, and has only made provision for packaging in principle. Moreover, circular economy law is a framework law and it is impossible to make very detailed provisions on overpacking. "To make the circular economy law operational for over-packaging, it is necessary to further introduce relevant supporting measures for different problems."

Earlier, Feng Zhijun, vice chairman of the National People's Congress's National Environment and Resources Committee, revealed in an interview with Xinhua News Agency that in order to ensure the introduction of the Circular Economy Law, the State Council and relevant departments are currently organizing the formulation or revision of relevant supporting systems and standards. There are 28 such regulations, rules and plans, together with 61 related regulations, rules, and plans that have already been implemented, and a total of 89 items. "In addition, there are more than 300 related standards included in the preparation plan for the current year and the next year. This will greatly enhance the operability of the circular economy law."

Zhang Tianzhu said that although the introduction of the Circular Economy Law still lacks operability in regulating excessive packaging, it still provides the necessary legal basis for formulating regulations and regulations that limit excessive packaging in the future.

NPC deputies appealed for packaging as soon as possible

Standardized public expenditure product packaging should be valued

In fact, under the impetus of relevant departments, deputies to people's congresses, experts and scholars, and industry insiders, packaging legislation has begun to enter the public view. At the two national conferences this year, a number of NPC deputies had proposed the introduction of a product packaging law as soon as possible. Zhou Hongyu, the NPC deputy from Hubei, was one of them.

"The system's product packaging specification is still blank in China." Zhou Hongyu said that scattered standards and principles of laws and regulations, it is difficult to effectively regulate the current over-packaging problems such as luxury packaging, the introduction of a special product packaging law, appears to be very Urgent and needful.

There are currently two mandatory national standards for overpacking in China—the mandatory national standards for moon cakes and the general rules for over-packaging of goods. The former is mainly for moon cakes. It has been implemented since June 1, 2006; the latter covers beverages, wine, cakes (except moon cakes), cosmetics, health foods, tea, food, etc., and was approved on July 14 this year. The review of the National Standards Review Committee has been submitted to the National Standardization Committee for approval. In contrast, the process of packaging legislation has been slow.

“The drawbacks of having standards without laws are that they cannot clearly define the main parties responsible for each link, leading to multiple enforcement and repeated enforcement, and the related departments can easily shirk their responsibility.” Zhou Hongyu said, “Pre-holiday 'cyclone' routine inspections. Although some achievements have been made, in the long run, it is still difficult to effectively solve the problem of over-packaging. The key reason is that the legislation has not yet kept pace."

“The legislation on packaging should be systematic.” Zhou Hongyu said that through legislation, it is first necessary to determine the main body of responsibility for each link, which organization should set the standards for the production process, how the manufacturers should implement the standards, and which departments should be responsible for the inspection; How the sales department is responsible for over-packaging, and how much responsibility it bears, "After the responsibility is determined, it can be traced step-by-step after problems arise in the packaging of goods." The basis for handling and penalties should also be determined to avoid arbitrary enforcement of laws throughout the country.

"It is worth noting that in the packaging law, there should also be a clear standard for the issue of packaging for the purchase of products by government officials." Zhou Hongyu said, "Some government departments use luxury products for internal consumption, such as moon cakes, and the packaging is made of red paint. Wooden boxes, silk satin cushions. Such luxury packaging in the government department's internal consumption or business contacts, unnecessary or should not be." Zhou Hongyu stressed that if you can save on public spending, especially on the packaging of government procurement will be To a large extent, the cost of government official expenditure is reduced. "If government procurement refuses excessive packaging, it will send a strong signal to the production sector, prompting it to contain excessive packaging from the beginning of the production process."

Five-year discussion and two-year revision of the draft package law

Defining general merchandise and gifts as the biggest differences

The appearance of excessive packaging phenomenon has emerged with the development of China's packaging industry. In the early 1980s, China's commodity packaging concept was still lagging behind. "First-class products, second-class packaging, and third-class prices" were the descriptions of the time. Due to the backward packaging industry, China lost more than 10 billion yuan each year due to poor packaging quality.

"After the mid-1980s, China's merchandise began to participate in international competition. When exhibiting abroad, it was heavily price-reduced because of excessively rough packaging. Some people anxiously shed tears." Chen Yingjie, secretary general of the Liaoning Packaging and Printing Industry Chamber of Commerce, said that from 1984, Since the beginning of the year, the State Council has carried out inspections of packaging in the country and set up a leading group for national inspections of packaging. After six months, the country has reduced losses and increased revenue by nearly 300 million yuan. From then on, the packaging industry began to develop further.

“With the development of the times, the problem of excessive packaging has also begun to appear. The introduction of specialized packaging methods has become a reality. In fact, discussions on the contents of the draft package law began as early as five years ago.” Chen Yingjie participated in the draft of the packaging law. According to reports, starting from 2005, the National Standardization Committee and other departments began to take the lead in drafting, but until now it is still discussing amendments.

After five years of discussion and two years of revision, why is it difficult to advance the draft package law? Chen Yingjie introduced that in the discussions among experts, scholars, and people in the industry, the biggest difference lies in the definition of ordinary goods and gifts and excessive packaging.

Yang Weimin, vice president of the China Packaging Federation, once gave the over-packing definition: "Excessive packaging means that the volume of the package is excessively larger than the volume of the content, the value of the package is excessively greater than the value of the package, and the quality of the package The quality of the material and the contents of the package are out of balance, and the contents of the package and the contents of the package are disproportionate.” But some experts believe that the word “excessive” obviously cannot be used in laws that require strict language requirements.

According to the general rule of restricting over-packaging of goods, the total cost of all packaging except for the initial packaging of beverages, cakes, cosmetics, health foods, tea, and foodstuffs should not exceed 15% of the ex-factory price of the goods. This means that 15% is the dividing line between over-packaging and modest packaging.

“The over-packaging standard problem has been solved tentatively, but it is still difficult for experts to reach agreement on the boundaries between ordinary goods and gifts.” Chen Yingjie said that in the packaging and printing industry, many experts believe that under the current market economy conditions, it should be allowed. A portion of beautifully packaged goods exists because it satisfies the needs of certain objects. "Only by resolving these differences, can the packaging law work effectively."

Chen Yingjie said: "As far as I know, after many discussions and amendments to the draft packaging law will be expected to be submitted to the next two national conferences in the next year, looking forward to the packaging law can play a deterrent effect on excessive packaging!"