The impact of the packaging industry on the environment

With the development of market economy. As the varieties of goods are increasing, the packaging of goods is becoming increasingly important. Packaging has become an indispensable part of various fields of product production and circulation.

The role of packaging in the economic development of commodities is as follows:

1. To protect the intrinsic quality of the product and ensure that the product will not be damaged, lost or deteriorated from the time it is shipped to the consumer.
2. Promoting the sales and packaging of goods can only facilitate the identification and promotion of sales, and play a role of silent salesman in packaging of goods.
3. Good and beautiful packaging can increase the value of goods, so that customers are willing to pay a higher price to buy, because packaging protects goods to reduce the loss, play a role in increasing profits.
4. The need to package goods to facilitate value ordering, reduce breakage, and make them more suitable for further processing.
At present, the packaging industry in developed countries has become a relatively large industrial system in the national economy. For example, the packaging industry in the United States ranks fifth in the entire national economy; it is second only to the steel, automobile, oil and construction industries. Japan, Germany, and the United Kingdom, each year the packaging industry output value accounts for more than 2% of the GNP. More importantly, the value of packaging products added to the value of goods reduces the loss in transportation, and at the same time increases the competitiveness of the goods. Economic benefits.

For example, a coffee company in the United States reduced shipping costs by millions of dollars a year because of improved packaging and reduced shipping costs. At the same time, the price and sales volume of goods were increased, and ginseng exported from foreign countries such as Russia was previously a unit of 20 kilograms. Packaging with wooden boxes not only affected the status of ginseng but also affected the sales volume and unit price; With high texture, it is suitable as a gift for sale to increase the price of ginseng by 30%; and sales volume is also greatly improved.

After the reform and opening up, China's packaging industry has developed rapidly and has achieved great success. Over the past decade, the annual output value of the packaging industry has increased by 10%. The proportion of gross output value of the packaging industry to the gross national product rose from 1.02% in the 1980s to 1.15% in 1993. China's packaging industry undertakes 2.5 trillion yuan of industrial and agricultural products and 60 billion US dollars of export goods packaging tasks each year, and has formed a relatively complete packaging industry system. The development of the packaging industry has promoted the economic development of our country.

The impact of the packaging industry on the environment

With the growing importance of packaging in various sectors of the national economy, the packaging industry is also growing in scale, especially disposable packaging and light plastic packaging materials that have been widely used in recent years. Consumers throw away and throw away a large amount of waste that is difficult to deal with after they are used, causing environmental pollution problems. The "long white dragon" along the railway is caused by the discarding of disposable lunch boxes, because the polystyrene plastic used at this time is not easily degraded. It's hard to recycle, so it's getting more and more. There are also large quantities of polyethylene bags for food packaging. People should be thrown away to be the main cause of white pollution. Therefore, environmental protection is a worldwide topic in the 21st century. Strengthening environmental awareness will become an important social morality in people's daily lives. Due to the rising awareness of environmental protection. An unprecedented “green revolution” is emerging worldwide. The packaging industry is also facing a new situation, that is, the development of the packaging industry must also consider environmental issues. Make the two coordinated. For the current situation, the following measures can be taken to reduce and limit the environmental pollution caused by packaging waste.

First, the packaging material;

Try to use easy-to-handle packaging materials and actively develop new packaging materials.
Facts have proved that with the trend of "green packaging" in developed countries in Europe and America, the environmental protection of enterprises has made some progress in the past to develop and use green packaging materials that meet environmental protection requirements. Pulp forming packaging is gradually replacing plastic materials that are difficult to degrade, and new types of new materials that meet environmental requirements have also been developed. For example, a U.S. company has developed a reusable paper packaging mat that uses old newspaper pulp to create such packaging mats. The material can replace the widely used foam material that is not easily degradable.

Because plastics are widely used in the packaging industry, it is difficult for ordinary plastics to degrade their wastes to cause serious “white pollution”. People are looking for a new kind of new material that will help the environment replace old plastics. In this regard, Tianjin Danhai Stock Co., Ltd. introduced the biodegradable plastic mother liquors with the results of the "Tianda 85 Research Project" and the research has made breakthrough progress.

At present, an annual production capacity of 30,000 tons of master batches and 10,000 tons of related products has been established. Currently, domestic degradable plastics production enterprises mostly introduce foreign technologies with high production costs, high product prices, and difficulties in marketing, but they are degraded by Dan Hai Company. After 6 years of development and industrial research, plastics pioneered the use of starch as the main raw material and polyethylene to make biodegradable plastics. The starch content of up to 75%, not only easy to degrade but also maintain the original function of plastic, low cost, ordinary plastic products on the market is widely welcomed. Market prospects. In 1999, it was identified as the only industrial demonstration project in China and the product was approved as an eco-label product. Recently, the successful development of the second generation of more advanced new materials has become a very promising new material for the development of the packaging industry.

Second, in food packaging, developing edible packaging is a new approach. As we all know, food packaging is a large product of packaging industry, accounting for about 70% of the packaging industry. Food packaging waste also has the greatest environmental pollution. Therefore, solving the problem of food packaging waste is also a major issue for the packaging industry. The current food packaging industry has risen edible packaging, which is a good solution to the contradiction between food packaging waste and environmental protection. Its goal is to create a packaging film that does not affect the flavor of packaged foods. There have been a number of developments: for example, a company in Queensland, Australia, has developed an edible potato chip package that allows people to consume their packaging after eating the potato chips. Japan has developed edible half paper and chitosan extracted from shell materials to make a kind of edible wrapping paper. This fast food noodles seasoned in edible packaging paper can be directly cooked in pot water.

The use of edible packaging not only facilitates people's lives, but also avoids packaging waste from polluting the environment. It is worth further study.

Third, consider the environmental protection requirements in packaging design

l. Use the same material as possible when designing packaging, and can separate materials that can coexist

Packages made of a single material are easy to recycle because they do not have to talk about the separation and purification of materials. For example, a pure polyester Coca-Cola bottle without a high-density polyethylene base appeared on the market. It is more reproducible and thus welcomes the multi-level structure of composite packaging that must be considered for ease of separation and does not prevent re-use. If the aluminum beverage is coated with an organic coating on the surface, the organic coating will be burned when it is melted, which will not cause difficulties for the cold cycle. Paper and plastic in composite packaging are difficult to separate and difficult to purify.

2. Designing and producing reusable packaging

The use of multi-purpose packaging to save resources and reduce pollution should be strongly advocated. In this regard, beer and soda companies do better, such as Japan's Asahi, Zhaji and other beer companies recently developed a longevity beer bottle, the strength of the original bottle increased by 10%. The average life expectancy has doubled and can reach 16 years. In the European and American markets, there is a luxury packaging for cosmetics. The packaging is beautifully made and durable. Consumers can repeatedly add cosmetics within the original packaging to avoid packaging discard.

3. Simplify packaging for proper packaging.

Excessive packaging creates a waste that also causes unnecessary pollution. Many countries in the world are now advocating appropriate packaging and corresponding regulations have been issued. For example, the United States imposes restrictions on the degree of complexity of the packaging of goods according to a certain degree, and if they exceed the requirements, they impose heavy penalties. This will force businesses to simplify packaging and reduce environmental pollution.

Fourth, do a good job of packaging recycling

As packaging waste has become a major environmental pollution. All countries are trying hard to carry out classified recycling and recycling. For example, the classification and collection of packaging waste in Germany is very good. It not only recovers a large amount of useful materials, but also uses incineration of waste to generate electricity, generates energy, and greatly reduces environmental pollution.
At present, China's old packaging recycling channels are not as smooth as in developed countries.

China is a large developing country. The per capita resources are very low. We should learn advanced overseas experience and do a good job in the classification of packaging. Use more resources and reduce environmental pollution. Do more at one stroke.