New ideas for reducing packaging pollution in developed countries

Environmental protection is a worldwide topic in the 21st century. Strengthening environmental protection has become an important social morality in people's daily life. Due to the rising awareness of environmental protection, an unprecedented "green wave" is emerging in the world. The packaging industry is also facing a new situation, that is, the development of the packaging industry must also consider environmental issues. In this respect, some developed countries have some new ideas:

First, in the selection of packaging materials

Try to use easy-to-handle packaging materials and actively develop new packaging materials to reduce the pressure on the environment. At present, many European and American developed countries have developed "green packaging materials" that meet environmental requirements and have achieved certain achievements. Pulp forming packaging is gradually replacing traditional plastic materials that are difficult to degrade. For example, a U.S. company has developed a reusable paper packaging mat that uses old paper to create the packaging that can replace the now widely used non-degradable foam mats.

Second, food packaging

Developing edible packaging is a new approach. As we all know, food packaging is a large industry in the packaging industry, accounting for about 70% of the packaging industry, while food packaging waste is the largest environmental pollution. Therefore, solving the problem of food packaging waste is a major issue for the packaging industry. The development of edible materials is a good way to solve the contradiction between food packaging waste and environmental protection. Its goal is to make an edible packaging film that does not affect the flavor of packaged foods. For example, a company in sub-Queensland, Australia, has made a kind of edible potato chips package. People can eat the potato chips and eat them without causing waste. Japan has developed shellac-derived chitosan to make edible packaging. The paper, the fast food noodles packaged in edible packaging paper, can be placed directly into the pot for cooking. Edible packaging not only facilitates people's lives, but also avoids packaging wastes from polluting the environment. It is worth further study.

Third, consider the environmental protection requirements in the packaging design

1. Use the same material or separate materials that can coexist when designing the package. Packaging made from a single material is easy to recycle. As it appears on the market today, a pure polyester Coca-Cola bottle without a high-density polyethylene base is easy to regenerate. Multi-layered composite materials must be considered for ease of separation without hindering recycling. For example, when an organic beverage is coated on an aluminum beverage surface, the organic coating material can be burned without causing difficulty in recycling, and the composite paper-plastic packaging material is difficult to be separated and purified.

2. Design can be recycled and used repeatedly

The use of reusable packaging materials saves resources and reduces pollution, and should be strongly promoted. Japan Asahi, Zaohuang and other beer-spraying companies have developed a long-lived beer bottle that is 10% stronger than the original beer bottle, and the average life expectancy can be doubled. The service life can be up to 16 years; the cosmetic products appearing on European and American markets are exquisitely packaged and sturdy. Durable, consumers are willing to preserve the packaging and repeatedly add cosmetics to avoid the environment pollution caused by packaging.

3. Try to simplify the packaging to achieve moderate packaging

Excessive packaging causes waste of resources and also causes unnecessary environmental pollution. Some developed countries advocated moderate packaging and introduced some regulations in succession. For example, in the United States, the degree of complexity of commodity packaging has been regulated to a certain extent by a certain proportion. If excessive packaging exceeds the requirements, heavy penalties are imposed, thus forcing manufacturers to simplify packaging. Japan even proposed the idea of ​​"zero packaging."

Fourth, do a good job of recycling of packaging

As packaging waste is a major environmental pollution. All countries are trying to separate and recycle packaging wastes and recycle them. For example, the sorting and collection of packaging waste in Germany is well done. It not only recovers a large amount of useful materials, but also uses waste to generate electricity through incineration to generate energy and reduce environmental pollution. China is a large developing country with per capita resources far below the international average. We should learn advanced foreign experience to make a good classification of packaging, use more resources, and reduce environmental pollution at the same time.

Liu Beichen
Source: China Packaging