Green packaging and waste paper recycling

Under the impact of the environmental protection wave, the world packaging industry is undergoing a major transformation, and green packaging has become the development direction of the packaging industry. China's packaging industry has focused on the development of green packaging for more than a decade, fully implemented the green packaging project, accelerated the industrialization of recycling processing and industrialization of green packaging materials, and achieved gratifying results. Paper and paperboard are typical green environmental protection packaging materials. “To replace paper with plastic” and “paper with wood” are the future development direction. China's packaging industry should focus its efforts on the recycling of paper and paper products to China. Important.

1 “Green packaging” requires the recycling of waste paper and paper products to protect the environment and sustainable development as the core of the green wave. Its purpose is to protect the environment and resources, make full use of renewable resources, and create a sustainable environment for humankind. Paper product is a kind of packaging material that originates from nature and returns to nature. The paper packaging products made of natural materials meet the requirements of green packaging. “Paper-based plastics” and “paper-based wood” are the development direction of the world packaging industry. . Therefore, China's packaging industry should focus its work on the development and utilization of paper and paper products.

2 Recycling of waste paper and paper products is of great significance to China The consumption of per capita paper and board is an important measure of a country’s economic development and industrial level. In 2001, the average American paper and board consumption was 306.5 kg, ranking first in the world. . Japan is 242.8kg, ranking fifth in the world. Our country is only 29.0kg, which is lower than the world average of 51.8kg per capita consumption of paper and board.

China has a large population and limited forest resources. The forest coverage rate is 16%, which is lower than the world average of 28%. China has a shortage of water resources, and its per capita water volume is only 15% of the world average. Due to the shortage of forest resources and water resources in China, the demand for raw materials in the paper industry cannot be met. Every year, China has to import large amounts of paper, paperboard, pulp and waste paper, accounting for about 66% of the paper and paperboard consumption in China. If China adopts effective measures to recycle waste paper products, it will be able to alleviate the shortage of paper materials and change the current status of dependence on imports.

Paper and paper products are made of fibers. The recycling of paper and paperboard is also the reuse of these fibers. However, repeated reuse weakens these fibers, or becomes soiled with ink, or is lowered due to mixing with different grades of fibers. Therefore, the recycled fiber is lower in quality than the new fiber. In general, fibers can be reused 3-5 times. Therefore, in pulp and papermaking, it is always necessary to constantly replenish some of the new fibers. In the world, whether it is a resource-rich developed country or a resource-poor developing country, it attaches great importance to the recycling of waste paper. Table 1 shows the utilization of waste paper in China and some developed countries in 2001. At present, the utilization rate of waste paper in China is close to the level of developed countries, which shows that China's paper industry has made significant achievements in the use of waste paper. However, the recycling rate of waste paper is still relatively low. There is still a large amount of waste paper that can be used in China but not used, and there is still potential to be tapped. In Japan, the forest coverage rate is 65%. Despite the rich forest resources, Japan has taken various measures to promote the recycling of waste paper, so that there is a situation in which recycled paper exceeds demand. Japan's papermaking companies have saturated their recycling capacity and are unable to completely digest the recovered waste paper and sell the surplus paper to China. In China, the amount of waste paper that can be recycled but not recyclable is still large. It does not recycle, but it has to spend money to buy waste paper from Japan. Compared with Japan, there is a strong contrast.

Table 1 Utilization Rate of Recycled Recycled Paper and Regeneration Rate of Waste Paper (%)
Finland China South Korea Canada United States Japan Germany France
5.8 57.3 69.6 23.6 41.2 58 64.5 57.8
53.4 53.8 66.9 39.1 48.7 61.9 75.2 49.2

*Source: Statistical data of the Japan Paper Association; data in column 2 of the table is "utilization of recycled paper", and column 3 is "recycling rate of waste paper".

For waste paper recycling, classified collection is the most effective method. Because it is easier to use the same type of waste paper to produce the same type of paper, using waste paper to produce high-grade printing paper will cause a decrease in productivity and an increase in production costs. In fact, once the waste paper is classified, it will become a different kind of papermaking raw material and become a useful thing for human beings. Japan’s paper and paperboard production showed a trend of increasing year by year. In 2001, Japan’s output of paper and paperboard was 30.717 million tons, which was 1.1 times that of 1990. In the period from 1990 to 2001, the Japanese pulp consumption was basically 11 years. On the other hand, waste paper and paper products have become the main raw materials for the Japanese paper industry. In 2001, waste paper accounted for 58% of Japan's paper and paperboard production raw materials. It can be seen that Japan's main papermaking raw material is waste paper, and waste paper has played a role as an “invisible forest”. Due to the high recovery rate of waste paper, Japan has become the world's third largest paper producer.

3 China's waste paper and paper products have great potential for recycling. China attaches great importance to the recycling of waste paper. In 1998, the Provisional Administrative Measures for the Recycling of Packaging Resources was promulgated, which stipulated the disposal of packaging waste including waste paper packaging. This principle is very necessary and timely. The premise of recycling waste paper is classified recycling. At present, China's waste paper recycling system is still incomplete, and there is not enough publicity on the significance and methods of waste paper sorting and recycling. The employees have not received systematic training, resulting in the recovery of waste paper in recent years is far below the level of 20 years ago. At present, the recycling rate of waste paper in China is only 33.8%, and most of them are mixed and recycled, and the varieties are mixed, making it impossible for waste paper to be used rationally. There is also a large part of waste paper that has not been recycled, wasting these valuable renewable resources, and also causing harm to the environment.

At present, China's paper industry is developing in the direction of reducing pollution, saving energy and making full use of fiber resources. China's waste paper processing technology has also been significantly improved, especially waste paper deinking technology has matured. In addition, in recent years, China has introduced advanced waste paper processing equipment that has little damage to waste paper fiber and has the features of water saving, energy saving, and low fiber loss, and is suitable for processing various types of waste paper. The processing capacity of waste paper in China has been greatly improved, and China has already had the conditions to increase the recycling of waste paper.

4 Development Direction of Recycling and Utilization of Waste Paper and Paper Products in China After several decades of development, China’s waste paper and paper product recycling system has achieved great success. However, compared with Japan, there is still a certain gap. There are many reasons for this, both because of the reasons for the recycling management system and the lack of people’s ideological understanding. Recycling of waste paper and paper products has a long way to go. Currently, it is imperative to work out a complete set of waste paper and paper product recycling systems that are in line with China's national conditions and are in line with international standards. This will make the paper industry in China develop rapidly. At the same time, it also protects resources and ecological environment.

China should increase its efforts to promote resource awareness, raise the awareness of environmental protection among all people, make people aware of the importance of waste paper sorting and recycling, view waste paper as an “invisible forest”, and vigorously shape the ecological consciousness of “invisible forest”. And through legislation to ensure the smooth implementation of waste paper sorting and recycling. Strengthen the functions of renewable resource recycling companies to form a nationwide network of waste paper recycling, processing, and utilization. Develop uniform waste paper classification standards, set up public waste paper sorting and recycling devices in households and various units, collect waste paper according to different types (waste newsprint paper, waste corrugated packaging paperboard, and office waste paper), and then collect them by papermaking companies. Recycling of quality. The government has given corresponding policies to support enterprises that recycle waste paper to encourage the development and research of waste paper processing technologies and equipment, and to promote the improvement of domestic waste paper utilization rate and regeneration rate.

According to China's lack of resources, the recycling of waste paper and paper products, and the development and production of paper packaging materials that are harmless to the human body and the environment are of great significance to improving the level of China's packaging industry and developing China's green packaging.