Thinking about green packaging

First, the function of packaging and

We discuss green packaging and must talk about packaging.

In today's commodity economy and society, a great variety of commodities are produced in large quantities. Products are products that are produced for exchange. Therefore, there is a process of commodity circulation. In order to meet the needs of circulation, various types of packaging are used, such as storage and transportation packaging (also known as transport packaging), sales packaging, etc.; packaging has become an indispensable part of goods, no packaging, circulation of goods, The function of exchange cannot be realized; unpackaged commodities are inconceivable, and even if a very small number of so-called shirtless commodities are used, they may not be used in the process of transportation and storage. Instead of using packaging, they may not use sales packaging. Exaggeratingly speaking, without packaging, there will be no commodities and there will be no development of our market economy. No commodity can be a good product without good packaging. The indiscriminate criticism of commodity packaging and opposition to packaging is very wrong, and the viewpoint of despising packaging is also very harmful. Some older friends must remember that in the 1970s and 1980s, our country had just vigorously developed the initial stage of the market economy. In order to change the major losses caused by the poor packaging of China's export goods, we formulated a whole set of rapid changes to us.” "First Class Goods, Second Class Packaging, Third Class Price" It is true that the reference to first-class goods is indeed debatable, but the case of second-class packaging that leads to third-class prices can be found everywhere, especially when many “bare-shouldered goods” were exported from agricultural and sideline products. After the sale of packaging packaging doubled in value, they also obtained a lot of excess profits, and we will be part of this should have belonged to their own wealth, freely handed over to Others. The experience of history deserves our great attention.

Appropriate application of packaging not only creates great benefits for the producers of goods, but also brings many benefits to consumers. For example, after rice is packed in plastic film bags, especially in barrier plastic film bags, the shelf life can be increased from about one month in bulk to 3-6 months or even more than 1 year; after vacuum pickling, pickles, etc. The quality of the product has a relatively high price, but this small package has the advantages of long storage time and convenient use, and because of its moderate weight, it avoids spoilage of the rest of the meal after opening, but reduces the consumer's economy. The burden was thus generally welcomed by the society. The shirtless packaging of traditional agricultural and non-staple food such as pickled mustard and pickles and the large packaging with a weight of 500g or more were becoming fewer and fewer, and some even disappeared. Many off-site sales of agricultural and sideline products benefit from the development of packaging materials and packaging technology. Although in the highly developed science and technology industry today, agricultural and sideline products are continuously declining, but the geographical boundaries still exist, and the ancient saying of Nanju Beibei still plays a role in many places, such as the fresh lychee called the king of fruit. It can only be produced in the subtropical south, so that only if we use the polystyrene foam insulation container, this kind of corruptible fresh fruit can be shared by all people across the country and the general public. And so on, there are many. Through the above example, it is not difficult to see that rational use of packaging is necessary for improving the competitiveness of products, improving the economic efficiency of enterprises, or better satisfying social needs and protecting the rights and interests of consumers. It is believed that the problem is not whether the goods need to be packaged, but how to rationally use the packaging, that is, to develop and apply green packaging.

Through decades of efforts, our packaging industry has made considerable progress. Although there are still considerable gaps in many places compared with the industrialized countries of the world, many fields have reached or approached the advanced level in the world. The development of a market economy has made a tremendous contribution. This is very gratifying. In the past two decades, the development and application of the packaging industry has eloquently demonstrated that packaging is a major player in the development of a market economy, and it is also an important aspect that we cannot neglect in the development of the national economy in the future.

Second, white pollution is a special product under specific historical stages. We should learn profound lessons from it.

In the 1990s, the so-called white pollution that was caused by packaging waste represented by EPS disposable tableware and other serious environmental hazards occurred in China. Since the stability of plastic itself is good, its waste is scattered in the natural world, causing serious problems. Visual pollution, but also caused serious harm to the ecological balance can not be ignored. At first glance, the environmental pollution caused by a large amount of plastic waste is due to the fact that plastic packaging is used too much. Therefore, it was proposed that “paper-based plastic molding” and “wood-based plastic molding” should be used to limit or prohibit the use of plastic packaging materials. In fact, these views are extremely one-sided and very wrong. They must be given attention and clarified.

Plastics, as a new type of synthetic polymer material that came out in the early 20th century, has been favored by all walks of life with its wide variety, excellent performance, convenient molding, and low price, and it has penetrated into industry, agriculture, and national defense for decades. All aspects of scientific research and people’s lives are particularly prominent in the application of packaging. The amount of plastics used in packaging accounts for more than 20% of the total output of plastics. In packaging materials, the application of plastics is second only to paper products. And far more than traditional packaging materials such as metal, glass, wood, etc., and leapt to the second place, and still develop at a rate that other packaging materials do not have. The irreplaceability of plastics in the packaging field has become increasingly prominent. The cases are numerous and can be described by the world. Compared with industrialized countries, our plastic packaging is not used too much, but is rather rare. In the 20th century, In the late 1990s, when serious “white pollution” occurred in China, the per capita plastic packaging material usage was only about 1 kg, which was only about one-thirtieth that of foreign industrial countries, and China’s “white pollution” was relatively low. What is the reason why foreign industrial advanced countries are far behind? The author believes that the main reason is not that our plastic packaging is used too much, but that our general public have poor environmental awareness. Many people have the habit of throwing litter at random. The government does not have sufficient control over policies and regulations. Insufficient and waste recycling network is not sound enough. This is the crux of the matter.

The development of scientific and technological work has nurtured plastics, a new kind of polymer materials, and the popularization and application of plastics in packaging materials. Whether it is to improve the effectiveness of commodity packaging, reduce the cost of packaging, facilitate the people’s lives, improve the quality of people’s lives, or save resources. From the perspective of benefiting sustainable development, it is very favorable. Therefore, it is no exaggeration to say that the wide application of plastic packaging materials is a revolutionary event in the packaging industry. “White pollution” is only the development process of the packaging industry. The local and temporary problems that have emerged, the successful experience of foreign industrialized countries, and the achievements China has made in governing “white pollution” in recent years show that as long as we adhere to the principle of 5R1D, we will minimize the use of packaging (reduction ) Reuse of the package as much as possible, reclaim the used package, recycle as much as possible the recycling of the packaged waste, or recycle it into a recycled material, refuse to use an environmentally friendly product ( (Reuse), the development and application of degradable plastic (degradable), only We really do a good job in media propaganda, improve relevant laws and regulations, and strengthen law enforcement. By establishing and improving the recycling of waste packaging materials, using the network, and implementing comprehensive measures such as the development and use of biodegradable plastics, we can surely reduce the harmful effects of waste packaging materials on the environment. To the minimum, or even completely eliminated. "White pollution" has brought serious harm to our environment and brought a huge negative impact on the development of our society. This is a very sad thing, but it also gave us a deep impression. The education class made us realize that human beings can only develop well if they are kind to the environment and seriously protect the environment. Otherwise, they will be punished by the natural world. If we can really learn from the “white pollution” incident, we can Green packaging work, "white pollution" will become our rare spiritual wealth.

Third, correctly understand and do a good job of green packaging work

With the continuous improvement of people’s environmental awareness, green packaging has become more and more popular with people. It can be described as people’s desires and expectations. But so far, quite a lot of people’s understanding of the true meaning of green packaging is still very one-sided or quite vague. of. Therefore, here we discuss the issue of green packaging with everyone. I believe that the so-called green packaging, in short, is conducive to the sustainable development of human packaging, namely the green packaging. Specifically speaking, green packaging should have three basic conditions, namely safety, hygiene, environmental protection, and resource conservation. If a package does not have or does not fully meet the above three basic conditions, it cannot be called a green package.

1, safety and health

Safety refers to the fact that packaging must have a reliable protection function for the packaged goods. It is a basic function that any package must have. It is universal.

Hygiene means that the use of packaging must not cause harm to humans and livestock and meet the requirements of relevant hygienic standards. Different commodities have different requirements for the hygienic properties of packaging materials. This requirement is particularly important for foods and drugs.

2, protect the environment

The relationship between packaging materials and the environment must be analyzed from the perspective of the life cycle. From the perspective of environmental protection, the packaging materials are required to start from the raw materials, to the production, processing and use of packaging materials, and to the entire process of waste disposal after use. In the entire life cycle, there is good adaptability to environmental protection. The emphasis here is on the whole process, not just on one or some links, that is, on the governance of “white pollution” and to prevent the pollution of packaging waste from the natural environment. It is very important and important for the development of green packaging. On the other hand, as far as the development of green packaging is concerned, it is not enough to simply deal with "white pollution" - the disposal of packaging waste.

3. Saving resources mainly means saving materials and energy. Of course, from a deep level, there are still problems in saving human resources.

To carry out green packaging work, we must now pay attention to the following aspects:

(1) The development of green packaging cannot be limited to the treatment of "white pollution." Managing "white pollution" so that packaging waste does not cause harm to the natural environment is an essential condition for carrying out green packaging work; governance "white pollution" is an important aspect of developing green packaging, and governance "white pollution" is also just green packaging. One of the aspects, not the entire contents of the green packaging. The development of green packaging is a systematic project. We must seriously study the entire “life cycle” of packaging to eliminate the harm to the natural environment and human beings through the whole “life cycle” of packaging in order to realize our original intention of developing green packaging. The true green packaging achieves the goal of sustainable development and benefit for future generations.
(2) While carrying out the work of green packaging, while we are currently focusing on the disposal of packaging waste, we must incorporate clean production into the content of green packaging. Particular attention should be paid to the issue of the clean production of paper products and plastic products that have a large amount of use and have a great impact, and minimize the negative impact of the “three wastes” substances on the surrounding environment during the production of packaging materials. For example, as far as possible in the production process, there is no solvent-free compound process, co-extrusion process, and extrusion compounding process to replace the dry compound process to produce plastic composite packaging materials without the generation of three wastes, and the energy consumption is less; Without using some toxic and hazardous substances and carrying out production, it is necessary to do a good job of the three wastes treatment in production and to achieve discharge standards.

(3) Pay attention to the problems in the recycling of packaging waste. Recycling of packaging waste has made great achievements, but there are many problems. We must attach great importance to the problems that exist. Here are some representative examples.

For example, cleaning and packaging waste