Second revolution about green packaging

In China's world, green barriers and environmental protection barriers have also frequently brought us new challenges. During the World Environment Day, the curtain of the recycling of packaging waste in China was officially opened.

1 The rise of the waste resource revolution

In order to solve the problems of resources and the environment, developed countries in the world have adopted "recycling of waste (including packaging waste)" as the focus of national economic construction in recent years, setting off a worldwide "resource revolution" climax. The innovation of packaging has also entered the new era of "second revolution" in the recycling of packaging waste from the "green revolution." In this regard, some areas in China have also started to move and carry out waste separation work.

On August 3, 1996, China issued a decision on several issues related to environmental protection. It is stipulated that the implementation of the environmental protection quality administrative leadership responsibility system to control old pollution, control new pollution, and prohibit the transfer of waste pollution, at the same time to improve the public awareness of environmental protection, protection and reasonable exploitation of natural resources, vigorously develop the environmental protection industry and waste utilization, the implementation of sustainable development strategy To effectively protect the rights and interests of our country.

Since l996, ISO's international environmental protection standards have also begun to be implemented in China. After nine years of practice, China's packaging industry has already reached a certain level of understanding. It has taken a solid step toward green products and environmentally-friendly packaging, and has achieved gratifying results.

2 w TO rules and environmental packaging

The so-called "environmental packaging" is the packaging that meets the international environmental protection standards and adapts to the national green regulations. It is the only standard for green products, green packaging and "green" companies.

The purpose of the International Standards Organization to establish environmental protection standards is to provide companies with the elements of an effective environmental management system. After China officially joined the World Trade Organization WTO in December 2001, many countries have used WTO rules to achieve the purpose of actually restricting imports. As a result, various green barriers and environmental protection barriers have been erected in front of China's export packaging products. The new international standards illustrate the importance and urgency of the establishment of environmental protection standards and environmentally friendly packaging systems. They apply to all types of products and scales of enterprises, as well as to various geographical conditions, cultural backgrounds and social conditions. The adoption and implementation of a series of environmental standards is crucial, and it helps to bring satisfactory results to all stakeholders.

In order to achieve the goal of environmental protection, the International Organization for Standardization encourages enterprises to implement and adopt the most suitable, most feasible, and most effective “green technology” or “clean technology”, aiming to achieve the ultimate goal of maintaining balance between global environmental protection and resource economic development.

Environmental problems such as “white pollution” caused by old-style packaging have proved that the sustainable development of packaging must take the road of environmental protection. “Green environmental protection packaging” must be incorporated into new product standards. Therefore, environmental protection standards have practical and guiding practical significance for the packaging industry.

3 Waste Resource and Environmental Protection System

The Environmental Protection Management System (EMS) is the key to the recycling of waste, and is also the primary condition for the development of green packaging. Therefore, companies must establish their own EMS system, which can be carried out in two phases. First of all, an assessment of the company's environmental behavior and environmental impact, the Environmental Behavior Assessment (EPE).

The content includes energy consumption of packaging products, material consumption, emission indicators in the production process of packaging materials and after use of packaging products (eg, pollution, waste discharge, incineration, or post-buried pollution, etc.), the comprehensive impact of corporate activities on environmental protection, etc. Wait. The evaluation results will help packaging companies, companies to choose environmental protection technologies, clean processes and other new technologies and new equipment and new management systems, to the green direction. The second is to establish an "environmental protection system" on the basis of evaluation, just as the required "quality assurance system". The core of the Environmental Management System (EMS) is environmental policy, environmental planning, implementation and operation, inspection and correction, and management review. The EMS system will ensure that companies implement "green standards" and ultimately achieve the goal of "environmentally friendly packaging." The environmental policy, environmental protection objectives and activity plan formulated by the enterprise shall be appropriate to the impact of the enterprise's own attributes, scale, production (activities), products and services on environmental protection; and there shall be resource conservation, pollution reduction, recycling, and compliance with relevant regulations. Commitments such as regulations. EMS will also be responsible for routine tasks such as environmental supervision and environmental inspections.

4 CCA evaluation and environmental certification

On the basis of establishing an "environmental protection system," companies should apply to the national authorities and pass the "Environmental Protection Certification" (EA) to ensure that the company meets the requirements of relevant standards. This is similar to the ISO9000 certification. Only the quality of the product weighs its own emphasis on the quality of the product, while the “environmental certification” focuses on the “environmental quality” of the product packaging. For existing packaging companies, it is not enough to “save resources, reduce pollution, and reuse”. Packaging companies must also have environmental protection agencies and corresponding environmental protection policies and environmental protection measures, and most importantly, It is certified by environmental protection audit. This is the premise of "green packaging" approval. In the environmental certification work, a very important procedure is to carry out the "life cycle assessment LCA" for packaging products.

In general, the "life cycle" of packaged products is much shorter than that of machinery and home appliances. Therefore, evaluation is particularly important. The product life cycle assessment (LCA) occupies a very important position in environmental protection standards. As we all know, no matter how large or small products are manufactured, they must be "put in" and "output." There are raw materials, energy sources, human resources, and material resources for the "input" of production. In addition to the "products," there are scraps, waste, and excrement, and even toxic gases, liquids, and solids. The LCA evaluation required by ISO refers to the “comprehensive” evaluation of the “input” and the “output” mentioned above so as to carry out the “full process” control. Life cycle assessment is a huge system project, especially for complex products. It is said that it involves 600,000 data. It is obviously a vast project to collect and collect so much data and analyze and evaluate it. For this reason, some countries in the world have set up an “ecological research center” or an LCA center, and evaluated some packaging materials and packaging products. The recycling and recycling of packaging waste should also be evaluated so as to avoid recovery and reuse, and lose the significance of recycling. Based on the LCA evaluation of the packaging, it is possible to say “yes” or “no” to the current packaging materials and packaging products, and it is also possible to select new environmental protection technologies or cleaning processes to “completely process” production. Controlling and eventually producing a "green packaging" that meets the requirements will truly help protect the earth and human society.

5Environmental Protection Mark is the prem

The green environmental protection label is called "Environmental Labeling" in international standards. The three types of environmental labels introduced by ISO are globally implemented: Type I, Type II, and Type III. Government agencies in various countries will recommend products or packages with “environmental signs” to users and consumers. The WTO rules show that any product that receives the "Environmental Protection Mark" can enter the international market.

The European Union has recently reiterated the principle that product packaging must have environmental protection signs. The type I mark stipulated by international standards is called "ecological sign", and it can also be called "environmental sign". It is based on the ecological conditions of various countries. Therefore, there is a large gap between developed countries and underdeveloped countries. The type II logo is a self-declarative “information mark” for company companies. The company publicizes its environmental policies and environmental protection commitments to the public in the form of labels, and accepts the supervision of the society and consumers. The type III mark is the “environmental quality” sign of the product, and it is clearly marked with specific numerical indicators. In accordance with the provisions of the ISO environmental protection standards, in addition to product features, product quality and other factors, product standards should also be included in the "Environmental Product Index" (EAPS), which is particularly important in EU countries. For the packaging industry, EAPS is the basic principle of green packaging design. Under the premise of considering the function of packaging protection, EAPS must also be considered in terms of design, production, recycling, and reuse. EAPS can not only increase the visibility of the company, but also improve the competitiveness of products. The best example of the products of China Haier Group in the European and American markets is the best example, and it is also the source of the acceleration of environmental engineering.

6 Novel Waste Composites

In general, solid waste composites use various solid wastes as raw materials and are made into various composite materials through different process technologies. The new material thus produced not only maintains the original main performance of each component, but also often has new characteristics that are not found in the original component, so as to obtain the best effect of enhancing the value of solid waste by gaining strengths and avoiding weaknesses. Wasteable resources are generally divided into 5 categories;

1) Waste organic polymer materials composed of waste agricultural film, waste rubber, waste plastics, etc.

2) Waste inorganic non-metallic materials composed of waste glass, waste paper, etc. 3) Waste metal materials consist of discarded cans and scrap wires.

4) Industrial waste consisting of foundry waste sand, fly ash, etc.

5) Agricultural and forestry waste consisting of straw, bark, sawdust, etc. Through a series of processes such as the recycling and recycling of solid waste, a variety of composite materials such as polymer-based composite products, silicate-based composite products, metal matrix composite products and ceramic matrix composite products were finally introduced to the market.

From the above, it can be seen that the “secondary revolution” triggered by the nationwide strategy for the recycling of waste has freed packaging waste from indiscriminate and incomprehensible ways of incineration and landfilling, as well as a single industry-wide recycling and re-use of other industries. Combine, such as waste plastic film / foundry sand composite building materials developed in Shanghai. In the post-packaging process, waste plastics, glass bottles, old wooden boxes, scrap metal, broken ceramics, waste composite materials, and other packaging wastes have been used again.

7 Develop environmentally friendly packaging to promote the second revolution

The implementation of the environmental packaging strategy is for the sustainable development of the packaging industry and is also part of China's New World green strategy. In 1996, China’s State Council’s decision on several issues related to environmental protection pointed out that in order to fundamentally control the trend of increasing environmental pollution and ecological damage, and improve the environmental quality of cities and regions, we must reduce waste generation and develop waste utilization channels. The People’s Republic of China promulgated and implemented the Solid Waste Pollution Prevention and Control Law of the People’s Republic of China also clarified this direction of development.

In response, the Chinese government has also attached great importance to it, and in 1990 it established China’s first “research institute for the recycling of waste resources” that is in line with international standards. In 1995, the country again focused on solid waste composite materials and started The "Special Action on Comprehensive Utilization of Resources and Technologies" was conducted; in 1997, the state invested heavily again to create the only national engineering research center for the recycling of solid waste in order to promote the industrialization of research results in the field of waste recycling. The direction of transformation, and the establishment and development of a new modern industrial system renewable resources industry. ◆

Source: Packaging World Author: Han Xiao, Han Mei