Introduction to the development of green packaging industry

The continuous advancement of science and technology has brought about rapid development of social productivity, and created tremendous material wealth for humans, but it has also caused serious pollution to the ecological environment. The packaging industry is one of the important industries that cause environmental pollution. In order to solve the pollution problem in the packaging industry, green packaging has become an inevitable trend in the development of the packaging industry, and the “green revolution” wave has risen globally.

The rise of green packaging originated from the proliferation of "white pollution." The root cause lies in the increasing packaging waste that comes with the increasing availability of packaging materials and packaging products. Because people ignore the environmental factors in the production and management activities, they ignore the intractable plastic packaging products, and do not recycle the recycled packaging products, thus causing serious environmental pollution.

"Green revolution" is a major change in the world packaging industry, and it is also a major trend in the development of the packaging industry in the new century. It has become an irreversible trend in commodity production and world trade. This kind of change is the inevitable result of adapting to environmental protection and saving resources in all aspects of concepts, materials, production, and consumption. The main contents of the “green revolution” in the packaging industry include: reducing unnecessary waste, providing renewable products, paying attention to economic benefits and ecological benefits, and not using products that pollute the environment and destroy nature.

First, the definition and classification of green packaging

For the green packaging has the following four aspects: 1, the most provinces, the least waste, save resources and energy; 2, easy recycling and recycling; 3, waste combustion produces new energy without secondary pollution 4, the minimum packaging materials and self-decomposition, does not pollute the environment. The essence or definition of green packaging should be: Green packaging can be recycled, reused or degraded, and appropriate packaging that does not cause harm to the human body and the environment throughout the product life cycle can be called green packaging.

Green packaging is an ideal package and it takes a process to fully meet its requirements. In order to achieve the goal of both the pursuit and the staged operation, we can grade the green packaging according to the green food grading method as follows:

Grade A green packaging: refers to waste that can be reused, reused or degraded, and contain 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 during the entire product cycle. The toxic substance content is moderately packaged within the specified limits.

The main considerations of the above classification are the waste problems after packaging and use. This is a hot spot for the protection of the environment in the world and is also the main content of the development of green packaging. On this basis, the pollution in the packaging production process is a Efforts have been made for many years, but problems still need to be resolved; in addition, green packaging should not unilaterally pursue the harm of the product to the environment and ignore the impact on human health, leading to the wrong concept of the product quality being reversed.

Second, the green packaging design and material classification

Green packaging products are also called friends of environment packaging or ecological packaging. They are harmless to the ecological environment and human health. Packaging products must be comprehensively measured from the selection of raw materials, manufacturing, use, recycling, and disposal of products to ecological compatibility. Environmental protection requirements, and can maintain a virtuous circle in the natural ecosystem. According to this principle, the design of green packaging should generally include the following six aspects:

1. The concept of packaging is green. Packaging designers should use green packaging materials or packaging materials with a reasonable lifespan as far as possible when designing, fundamentally reducing the environmental pollution caused by the disposal of packaging materials, and effectively utilizing and saving resources.
2, reduce the packaging. Minimize the use of materials in packaging design, eliminate unnecessary packaging, and promote simple packaging to save resources.
3, the packaging material is simple. Use as few materials as possible. Do not mix dissimilar materials for recycling.
4, the packaging design can be disassembled. Packagings that require a composite material structure should be designed as a detachable structure that facilitates recycling after disassembly.
5. Reuse of packaging materials. Use recyclable, multiplexed, and recycled packaging to increase the life cycle of the package and reduce packaging waste.
6, the harmlessness of packaging materials. It is best not to specify packaging materials that prohibit the use or contain certain harmful ingredients, and specify the content of heavy metals.

Green packaging materials are divided into the following categories:

1. Reusable and recycled packaging materials

Repeated use of packaging, such as glass bottles for beverage packaging, can be used repeatedly. Recycling, that is, regeneration after recycling, there are two methods of regeneration: one is the physical method, refers to the direct and thorough purification and smash, without any residual contaminants, the treated packaging material is used to regenerate packaging containers; the other is The chemical method means that after the recovered plastic is pulverized and washed, the depolymerization agent is used to depolymerize into a monomer or partially depolymerize into an oligomer under the action of a basic catalyst, and the monomer or oligomer is polymerized and regenerated after regeneration. Packaging Materials.

The repeated use and regeneration of packaging materials only prolongs the service life of polymer materials as packaging materials, and when they reach the end of their useful life, they still have to face the problems of waste disposal and environmental pollution.

2. Edible packaging materials

Among the more mature edible packaging films is the pullulan resin that has been industrialized since the 1970s. It is a non-ionic, non-reducing, stable polysaccharide that is easily dissolved in water and is colorless, odorless, nontoxic, and Toughness, high oil resistance, can eat.

3, degradable materials

Degradable materials are plastics that undergo significant changes in their chemical structures at specific times and under specific environmental conditions, resulting in loss of material properties. It not only has the functions and characteristics of traditional plastics, but also can be split, degraded and reduced in nature by the action of ultraviolet rays in the sunlight or microorganisms in the soil and water and their decomposition enzymes after the service life is completed. Re-enter the ecological environment and return to nature.

4, paper materials

Among the four types of packaging materials, paper, plastic, metal, and glass, paper products have the fastest growth. Paper and plastics have a strong competitive advantage in terms of price and source of raw materials. They are not as fragile as glass, nor are they as metallic. It's so heavy and easy to carry. Therefore, paper and plastic packaging are widely used in daily life. Paper products are prone to decay and can either recycle recycled paper or make plant fertilizers, reduce air pollution, and purify the environment. The waste paper imitation plastic packaging materials now developed have good air permeability, flexibility, toughness and strength. The products are non-toxic, non-polluting, rich in raw materials and low in cost, and can be widely used for packaging various products. Therefore, compared with plastic, metal and glass, paper packaging will become one of the most promising green packaging materials. Pulp molded products not only have the advantages of light weight, low cost, shock resistance, etc., but also have the characteristics of good air permeability, and are widely used in the packaging of fragile, fragile, and afraid of extruded articles.

There are three ways to treat wastes after paper product packaging products. There are three ways: First, recycle and reuse paper or continue to make paper products; second, natural degradation as fertilizer; third, emergency treatment is needed. The situation can be burned without producing toxic gases. The recycling of paper packaging waste has the following implications:

1. It can reduce the consumption of natural fiber raw materials and solve the shortage of packaging resources;
2. Greatly reduce production costs and achieve greater social and economic benefits;
3. To reduce packaging pollution and protect the environment, we should actively promote recycling of paper packaging waste.

Third, green ink - to achieve green printing

Packaging and printing is an integral part of the packaging industry and is also facing an environmental protection issue. “Green printing” is a new concept that has frequently appeared in the printing industry in recent years to follow the trend of environmental protection in the world.

Traditional gravure printing inks used in packaging and printing contain harmful solvents that are harmful to the human body. They not only directly harm the health of workers in gravure printing plants, but also cause certain pollution to the products packed in printed packaging products. This is a serious problem that needs to be solved urgently in the packaging and printing industry. The use of flexo instead of gravure should be a trend, and actively developing and developing water-based inks as alternatives to solvent-based inks is also a major approach. The impact of printing ink on the environment is very large, and when used in food packaging and printing, the harmful components of the ink will directly harm the health of consumers. The environmental issues related to inks are:

1. Ingredients harmful to human body in ink;
2. The problem of air pollution and odor caused by solvent evaporation in the ink;
3, water pollution caused by the discharge of water from cleaning water-based ink;
4. Eliminating water pollution caused by offset printing fountain solution;
5, print and ink containers and other industrial waste disposal.

In order to fundamentally improve the impact of ink on the environment, we should start with the composition of the ink, that is, the use of environmentally friendly materials to the preparation of environmentally friendly ink. At present, there are mainly three types of environmental protection inks:

1, water-based ink

The biggest difference between it and solvent-based ink is that the solvent used in water-based ink is water instead of organic solvent. Most solvent-based inks are mainly volatile and dry. Volatile gases are released when they volatilize. They pollute the surrounding environment and are harmful to the human body. Water-based inks are used. The solvents are ethanol and water and have little pollution to the environment.

2, UV ink

It is a photocurable ink that can change from a liquid state to a solid state under irradiation with a certain wavelength of ultraviolet light. It uses no solvent, has a fast and thorough drying speed, consumes less energy, is solvent-free, and does not require dusting to prevent contamination between printed products. The press and workshop environment is clean and free of dust pollution.

3, water-based UV ink

It is a new research direction in the field of UV inks. The viscosity of prepolymers in general UV inks is generally relatively large, and it needs to be diluted with a reactive diluent. However, the currently used reactive diluents have different degrees of toxicity. Therefore, the development of low-viscosity, low-toxicity reactive diluents is being developed at the same time. Water-based UV inks, using ethanol as a solvent, will give inks good compatibility and adhesion.

Fourth, open up the packaging machinery industry, environmental protection equipment market

The packaging and food machinery industry is an emerging industry that provides equipment and technology for the packaging industry and food industry. In the provision of equipment and technical services for the packaging industry, deep processing of the food industry, and comprehensive utilization, the links with the environmental protection-related fields have become increasingly widespread and close. The following describes several areas in the packaging machinery industry, and these areas are exactly the areas that China's environmental protection industry is currently encouraging to develop. From this we can see the importance of developing environmental protection equipment and technology markets in the packaging machinery industry.

1, the use of natural materials such as starch, plant fibers and minerals, such as production and processing of various packaging products.
2. Processing and comprehensive utilization of various packaging waste technologies and equipment.
3, honeycomb composite board production technology and equipment. The honeycomb composite board can save materials, has the advantages of good rigidity, high strength, moisture resistance, recyclability, low cost, etc., and becomes an ideal substitute for “paper substitute wood” and “paper substitute plastic”.
4. Research, promotion and application of various degradable plastic packages.

Concluding language

Green packaging as a complete and independent green system should meet the following requirements:
First, there is a set of green program design programs, including the project contents, implementation plans, and process routes of each subsystem in the entire system;
The second is to have a complete set of green production equipment and green guarantee of environmental protection system;
The third is to have a complete set of green management systems and programs, including all aspects of management and monitoring measures.

The green packaging evaluation system is I in the International Environmental Management System ISO 14000