What is green printing and green packaging?

Green printing

In the 1980s, European and American countries pioneered the concept of green printing. At present, green printing is leading and promoting global printing to a healthy and orderly direction with its strong influence. In foreign countries, it not only increases the demand for waste disposal, but also provides a way to reduce the consumption of ink. For example, as early as June 2000, the United Kingdom banned the use of solvent-based inks to print food packaging films. It is understood that 60% of prints in the UK are printed with alcohol-free or light alcohol inks. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency strongly opposes the use of solvent-based inks. Flexo-based water-based inks are currently the only non-toxic ink approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Association and are widely used for the packaging and printing of foods and pharmaceuticals.

In many countries, the people are also very concerned about the impact of commodities on health and the environment. For example, a recent French survey showed that 95% of French people want to understand the potential harm to the health and environment of the goods they buy, and they hope that the government will increase the safety of the products. Transparency related laws. 83% of French surveyed believe that today's children are facing more product safety threats than their parents, especially today's goods contain more substances that are potentially dangerous to human health than past products, such as certain chemicals. Wait. In recent years, as people's awareness of environmental protection has increased, green environmental flexo printing is more worth our expectation!

The impact of printed products on environmental protection is understood to be strictly limited in two aspects at the international level: the residual content of solvents is not allowed to exist or exceed the standard. The solvents here mainly refer to benzene, esters, ketones, etc.; heavy metals such as lead, chromium, The content of copper and mercury must comply with the provisions of European 94/62/EC. Its concentration must not exceed 100PPM (accumulator). The above two restrictions apply to the harmful substances in the ink.

The ink used in flexographic printing has its unique advantages. Now there are three types of flexographic printing inks: water-based inks; alcohol solvent inks; and UV inks. In particular, water-based inks do not contain solvents. Therefore, there is no residual solvent content. It is an internationally recognized environment-friendly ink. At present, it has been widely used in some countries. The alcohol solvent in the methanol-free alcohol solvent ink is much less polluting than the benzene, ester, and ketone, and the trace alcohol does not affect human health.

Most foreign plastic film prints we see use flexographic printing and use alcohol-solvent inks. It is also an environmentally friendly ink. UV inks also do not contain solvents and do not pollute the environment after UV drying. Since UV inks are also solvent-free and dry by ultraviolet rays, printing products using UV inks are also eco-friendly.

The advantages (kinds and properties) of using inks for flexographic printing are unmatched by other printing methods such as offset printing and gravure printing. Water-based inks have been identified as non-toxic inks by the U.S. Food and Drug Association. The safety of UV inks is also recognized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Green packaging

The so-called "green packaging" refers to packaging that does not cause pollution to the ecological environment, does not cause any harm to human health, can be recycled, recycled, and can promote sustainable development.

In other words, the whole process of packaging products from raw material selection, product production, use and disposal should meet the requirements of ecological and environmental protection. It includes conservation of resources, energy, avoiding the generation of large amounts of waste, easy recycling and recycling (resource-saving), or incineration, degradability, and other content that meets the requirements of ecological and environmental protection, that is, meets “3R+1D” (Reduce reduction Reuse, Recycle Recycling, and Degradable Degrable) principles. At present, the "over-packaging" tendency that appears in some product packaging in our country runs counter to the "3R+1D" principle. Therefore, it is of great practical significance to vigorously develop green packaging, reduce packaging, and waste disposal and recycling of resources. In the understanding of green packaging, there is currently a misunderstanding that it is considered that packaging waste is easy to handle, or made from degradable materials is the "green packaging"; there is a general perception that all paper packaging is "green" This understanding is incomplete. The “3R+1D” principle for the development of green packaging accepted by the world today is the implementation of packaging reduction. Packaging should meet the requirements of protection, convenience, sales, etc., and should be used in a minimum amount; packaging should be easy to reuse ( Reuse), or easy to recycle (Recycle), through the production of recycled products, incineration of heat energy, composting treatment to improve soil function, etc., to achieve the purpose of reuse; packaging waste can be degradable (Degradable), does not form permanent waste, and then achieve The purpose of improving the soil; packaging materials should be non-toxic and harmless to humans and organisms. Packaging materials should not contain toxic elements (such as halogens, heavy metals), or the content should be controlled below relevant standards. Another point is that packaging products from the collection of raw materials, materials processing, manufacturing products, product use, waste recycling and regeneration, until the final processing of the entire process should not cause harm to the human body and the environment. This is the highest requirement for green packaging based on the life cycle analysis methodology and system engineering perspective.

Due to the limited forest resources in our country, the pollution problems caused by papermaking are difficult to solve in a short time. If the paper is replaced with paper instead of plastic packaging, it is neither realistic nor environmentally friendly. A complete ban on plastic packaging will cause greater pollution.