Discussion on the Definition and Classification Method of Green Package

Under the impact of the world environmental protection tide, the development of green packaging has attracted the attention of the packaging industry and the environmental protection community. It has also become a hot topic in the academic community. But what exactly is green packaging? How can the green packaging industry develop healthily? There are many opinions. In order to highlight the main problems that should be solved in the current development of green packaging, and guide the healthy development of green packaging, this article will introduce the concept of green packaging and related concepts such as connotation.

First, the background of the green packaging

In 1987, the United Nations Commission on Environment and Development issued the Declaration of Our Common Future. In June 1992, the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development adopted the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development and Agenda 21, all over the world. A green wave centered on protecting the environment and saving resources has been set off. The green wave or the green revolution is a declaration of war on environmental pollution and resource destruction, and it calls for the creation of a group behavior that is clean, fresh, and returns to nature's ecological environment. At one time, “green food”, “green refrigerator”, “green car”, “green building materials”, “green clothing” advocating nature and protecting the environment, “green market”, “green industry” and “green city” emerged one after another. The formation of an overwhelming torrent. Most of the packaging is a one-off consumer goods, short life cycle, waste discharge. According to statistics, more than 45 billion tons of garbage are produced every year in the world. Among them, China produces about 600 million tons of industrial solid waste and 100 million tons of municipal waste each year, of which the annual amount of packaging waste accounts for about 15-20% of the city's fixed waste in terms of weight, and 25% in volume. -30%, and emissions increase at a rate of 10% per year, which makes the pollution of packaging waste to the environment and the waste of resources become increasingly prominent (only China's annual value of unused waste is up to more than 300 billion yuan). The world’s public and environmental protection community attaches great importance. The environmental protection circles of the United States and other countries have put forward three opinions on reducing the pollution of packaging waste: First, they should minimize or use less packaging; Second, they should try to recycle the packaging; Third, those that cannot be recycled can be biodegradable, not harmful. Public environment. To this end, Germany, France, the United States, the European Community and other countries have successively formulated strict packaging waste restrictions.

Green packaging emerged as a new concept for effective solutions to packaging and the environment in the late 1980s and early 1990s. This new concept is also known abroad as "pollution-free packaging" or "environmentally friendly packaging." In 1993, China’s packaging industry collectively referred to environmentally friendly packaging as green packaging.

Second, the connotation of green packaging

From the analysis of the source of green packaging, we can see that the most important meaning of green packaging is to protect the environment, and at the same time it has the significance of resource regeneration. Specifically, it should have the following meanings:

1. Reduce packaging. Packaging should meet the requirements of protection, convenience, sales, etc., and should be used in the minimum amount.

2. The packaging should be easy to reuse or easy to recycle. Through the production of recycled products, incineration and utilization of heat energy, composting to improve soil and other measures to achieve the purpose of reuse.

3. Packaging waste can be degraded (Degradable), does not form permanent waste, and then achieve the purpose of improving the soil. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and Degradable are the 3R1D principles recognized by the world today for the development of green packaging.

4. Packaging materials should be non-toxic and harmless to humans and organisms. Packaging materials should not contain toxic elements, halogens, heavy metals or their contents should be controlled below relevant standards.

5. Packaging products from the collection of raw materials, materials processing, manufacturing products, product use, waste recycling and recycling, until the final processing of the entire life of the product should not cause harm to the human body and the environment. The first four points should be the requirements that green packaging must have. The last point is based on the life cycle analysis method (LCA), using the system engineering point of view, put forward the highest requirements for green packaging.

Third, the definition of green packaging and classification goals

Through the above analysis, combined with the theme of sustainable development, green packaging can be defined as: packaging that does not cause pollution to the ecological environment, does not cause harm to human health, can be recycled and recycled, and promotes sustainable development.

Green packaging is an ideal package and it takes a process to fully meet its requirements. In order to enable green packaging to have both the direction of the pursuit and the goals that can be achieved in phases for operation, green packaging grading standards can be formulated according to the green food grading standards.

Grade A green packaging: refers to waste that can be recycled, reused, or degraded, and contains moderate amounts of toxic substances within the specified limits.

AA grade green packaging: refers to the waste can be recycled, reused or degraded, and does not cause harm to the human body and the environment throughout the product life cycle. The toxic substances are properly packaged within the specified limits.

For the above classification, the main consideration is to first solve the problem of waste after packaging. This is the focus of the protection of the environment in the world and the main content of the development of green packaging. On this basis, in order to solve the pollution in the packaging production process, this is a problem that has been working for many years and still needs to continue to be solved. The life cycle analysis method (LCA) is a method of evaluating the environmental performance of the packaging, and it is also a method to compare the environmental performance of the packaging materials. However, the problem should be prioritized. The use of two-level grading objectives will enable us to highlight the key issues in the development of green packaging, and attach importance to the development of late-stage packaging industry, instead of requiring full censure and confusing development ideas. At the present stage in China, all measures or materials that are conducive to reducing or solving waste pollution should be actively supported and promoted, and eventually the ideal green packaging materials should be selected.

(Dong Jinshi)

People's Daily Overseas Edition