International Society's Legal Regulation of Green Packaging

It is generally believed that green packaging refers to packaging that is harmless to the ecological environment and human health, can be reused, reused or degraded, and can promote sustainable development. Although the green packaging is produced in accordance with the people's environmental protection requirements, green packaging cannot be achieved by the market in any country; moreover, green packaging has increasingly become an important direction of green barriers and has become increasingly important for international trade. influences. The promotion of green packaging in the world proves that the legal regulation of green packaging is indispensable and mature. The regulation of green packaging in China's existing laws is not perfect. It is necessary to draw lessons from foreign experience.
First, the foreign legal regulation of green packaging 1. European countries, the legal regulation of green packaging (1) Europe's legal regulation of green packaging.
Germany passed the German Packaging Act in 1991 and was revised in 1998 according to the Guidelines for Packaging and Packaging Waste. In 1996, the "Circular Economy and Waste Management Law" was enacted to provide for the recovery of packaging waste by commodity producers and distributors. Containers and packaging are required to be labeled with green signs. The use fee for green labels is determined by the degree of difficulty in recycling and utilization of packaging waste. . In order to minimize the payment of the fee for the use of the green logo, the companies concerned are trying to make the packaging simple and soft on containers and packaging materials.
(2) The UK's legal regulation of green packaging In May 1996, the "Regulations on Packaging Waste" was passed. In 1993, 28 companies in the packaging chain set up a “Personal Responsibility Industry Group” to promote packaging waste collection and recycling processing systems throughout the country. 80% of residents participate in their activities, and local governments also organize recycling collections.
(3) Austria's legal regulation of green packaging.
In October 1992, the "Policy of Packaging" was passed, and the "Policy for Packaging Objectives" was published to supplement the requirement. Manufacturers and sellers are required to receive and collect transportation packaging, used packaging and sales packaging free of charge, and require 80% of the recycling of packaging resources. Recycling and recycling. In 1994, Austria introduced the "Draft Packaging Law," which more precisely elaborated the points of view of the above-mentioned laws and incorporated the "Guidelines" of European packaging. The country has also established a recycling system, the most famous of which is the “ecological box” and the “eco-bag”. It puts empty beverages and milk boxes inside, and when it is full, it is sent to a recycling station. The factory also sent people to send "ecological boxes" and "eco-bags" to consumers' homes for free, and took away the full boxes and bags so that the amount of waste each year was greatly reduced.
(4) France's legal regulation of green packaging.
In 1993, the "Regulations on Packaging" was issued, requiring that the amount of household waste disposed of in landfills must be reduced. In 1994, the Transport Packaging Regulations were enacted, which clearly stipulated that the final users of all packaging except household packaging should separate the product from the packaging and should be recycled by the company and retailers. French producers and importers have jointly established an "ecological packaging Co., Ltd." as a home recycling packaging waste center recycling system. Any signatories with "eco-company" can be affixed with "punctuation" marks for a certain fee. , have the right to use the company's products. In addition, they also have companies that specialize in the recycling of glass packaging and pharmaceutical packaging and wood packaging waste recycling.
(5) Belgium's legal regulation of green packaging.
Belgium passed the "National Ecological Law" in July 1993 and came into force in July 1995. The country has also established an ecological tax, which stipulates that all paper-packed foods and reusable packaging can be tax-free, and other materials must be taxed. Belgium has established a company named “Foster Pallas”, which consists of 28 packaging manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers and recycling companies, responsible for the collection and classification of urban residential household packaging waste.
2. The U.S. Regulating the Green Packaging As early as the 1960s, the United States has already noticed the dangers of packaging waste. For this reason, some state governments have begun to take legal measures to force the recycling of these wastes. As the state government came forward, the situation gradually eased, and a protection campaign entitled "Protecting the beauty of the United States" was launched. In 1970, the U.S. government established a resource recovery system. By the end of the 1980s, as the federal government could not impose its opinion on packaging waste issues on the state governments, they took a more proactive approach and developed a general policy. Members of the Congress made a plan for some realities, including reducing the source of packaging, Reuse, recycling and incineration, the states have responded. In 1993, the California government specially developed the “Leather Redemption System for Beverage Containers”, which stipulated that all recycling of hard plastic containers must meet the requirements of the reduction of 10% of raw materials proposed in 1991, or must contain 25% of recyclable substances. The law of North Carolina in 1988 stipulated that by the year of 1997, if the food packaging materials could not reach 25% of the recyclable substances, the expansion of polystyrene would not be allowed. The Connecticut H.B.51917 recommendation states that starting in 1995, the prohibition of the use of non-recoverable substances in the packaging of consumer products. A.B1839 of New York proposed that the sales and use of polystyrene foam plastic packaging materials be prohibited. The Florida government actively promotes the Waste Disposal Prepayment Act (AFD), which deals with the cost of packaging waste to consumers of free choice products, in order to encourage packaging container manufacturers to recycle, in order to support the implementation of the law, The ADF law stipulates that taxes can be applied for exemption of waste as long as it reaches a certain level of recycling. For example, according to the various materials released by the US Environmental Protection Agency (DEP) every year, containers with a recovery rate of more than 50% can be exempted from pre-payment to encourage All producers guarantee that at least half of their products can be recycled.
3. Australia's legal regulation of green packaging Australia's "National Packaging Guidelines" was published in 1991 and was jointly prepared by the government for representatives of industry, consumer, and environmental protection agencies. In addition, each state has its own legislation. Queensland enacted the “Waste Management Strategy (Draft)” in May 1994. This draft has a great influence on the important government agencies in the country and establishes whether it is a company or a consumer. Everyone should be responsible for the disposal of waste. The draft emphasizes the development of the market for recycled materials. In order to coordinate actions, we must remove all obstacles that hinder the recycling of recycled materials. Sixty percent of the residents in the state are involved in waste recycling system engineering, creating a good living environment for more than 3 million residents. Therefore, the Australian government listed this state as a model to promote the recycling of packaging waste in the country.
4. Japan's legal regulation of green packaging The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Trade of Japan announced a set of recommendations on product packaging, which deals with the disposal of consumer product packaging waste, reducing the amount of waste and encouraging recycling. It is advisable to propose that if a packaged product with a polluting environment is sold, a deposit shall be collected from the customer and the packaged product will be returned to the store after the customer has consumed the product, or the package will not be used at all. To suit this proposal, Japan The Department Stores Association established a committee to study ways to save energy and resources and work closely with suppliers and packers. The committee has also set two sets of department store commodity packaging standards. The environmental protection priority of each set of standards is: packaging materials or containers must not endanger human health, and should minimize the use of packaging materials that are difficult to degrade after being discarded, and try to reduce the volume of packaging; The space inside should not exceed 20% of the volume of the product. The committee advocated using the simplest packaging method, even requiring zero packaging, to avoid using packaging materials that are difficult to dispose of after disposal. In recent years, Japan has successively stipulated a series of laws and regulations such as the "Container Packaging Law," "Household Appliance Recycling Law," and "Recycling Resources Utilization Promotion Law."
II. Legal regulation of green packaging by the international community 1. Regulation of international treaties and green packaging The Rio Declaration is one of the central achievements of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development. The main content of the declaration is to announce the 27 principles concerning environmental and development issues. The declaration pointed out that there is an inseparable link between environmental issues and development issues. Environmental issues hinder the sustainable development of human society. Unsustainable development causes and exacerbates environmental issues. The declaration proposed a new model for human society and economic development, namely the model of sustainable development, and pointed out that the basic way to achieve sustainable development is to change the traditional methods of production and consumption and promote correct population policies.
Green packaging is a new direction for the development of the packaging industry in line with the principles of sustainable development. It was the publication of the Rio Declaration that set off a new round of green waves around the world. Under the impact of this green wave, various industries are trying to find the best development model for the industry in line with sustainable development. The packaging industry is no exception. Green packaging is the packaging industry's efforts to this end. It has enabled the packaging industry to embark on a new path of saving resources and protecting the environment. Therefore, the Rio Declaration played an important role in the emergence and development of green packaging. Many ideas for green packaging originated from the Rio Declaration.
In the international environmental law, the principle of sustainable development is a new and forming and developing principle. It has not obtained the legal validity and status of international customary law at present. However, due to its universal guiding significance in the field of international environmental law, which embodies the features of international environmental law and forms part of the foundation of international environmental law, more and more international legal documents recognize and reaffirm it, so the principle of sustainable development is important. The "soft law" norms have a wide range of influence in the world.
Other international treaties also stipulate environmental protection regulations related to green packaging. For example, the 1989 Basel Convention states that each State Party “takes appropriate measures to take into account social, technical and economic aspects, and guarantees that domestic hazardous wastes will Other wastes are minimized." The “waste” here includes industrial waste generated in packaging production and packaging waste as household waste; the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change establishes control over greenhouse gas emissions and stabilizes the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The principle of preventing the level of human interference caused by dangerous climate systems. Exhaust emissions from the production of packaging also fall within the scope of the treaty.
2. The World Trade Organization and the green packaging laws regulating trade and environmental issues have become major issues of the World Trade Organization. The "Agreement to Establish a World Trade Organization" stipulates: "In accordance with the goals of sustainable development, the world's resources should be used in a rational way, and the environment should be safeguarded and protected. Color measures should be strengthened in light of the different needs of members and the level of economic development." In trade, packaging is an integral part of goods. The goods must be packaged before they can be classified and counted, and they can be protected during transportation and storage. Through the design of the packaging, the circulation department, the consignee and consignee, and the consumer are provided with information about the goods, traded, used, and consumed. Can be successfully completed. Therefore, packaging is of course subject to the rules of the World Trade Organization. Green packaging is also a packaging method promoted by the World Trade Organization.
3. Regulation of EU and Green Packaging Regulations The European Union issued the "EU Guidelines for Packaging and Packaging Wastes" in December 1994 to avoid or reduce the adverse effects that packaging waste may have on the environment. It is a very difficult task to define every detail of the impact of packaging waste on the environment. Therefore, an additional annex was added to the guide, which specifies the "Basic Requirements for Packaging". The main principles of the document are as follows:
The weight and volume of packaging materials should be reduced to a minimum to ensure the safety of the packaged product and consumer acceptance.
After use, the harmful effects of harmful ingredients and other dangerous ingredients of packaging materials on the environment should be minimized.
Packaging materials should be suitable for material recovery and energy recovery standards, or can be rotted into compost, or can be reused if required.
The EU Guide to Packaging and Packaging Waste includes six major standards and a series of supporting standards. In addition, the standard also includes reports such as "Heavy Metals and Other Hazardous Substances in Packaging Materials" and "Regulations for Packaging Materials to Avoid Continued Environmental Implications".