Talk about Commodity Packaging and Environmental Protection (2)

2 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 is beginning to be edible packaging, which is a good way to solve the contradiction between food packaging waste and environmental protection. The goal it pursues is to make a packaging film that does not affect the flavor of the food being loaded. A variety of products have now been developed: One company in Queensland, Australia, has developed an edible potato chip package that can be eaten after people eat it. Japan has developed chitosan extracted from shell materials to make an edible wrapping paper. The fast-food noodles seasoned in edible packaging paper can be directly cooked in pots.

The use of edible packaging not only facilitates people's lives, but also avoids packaging wastes from polluting the environment and deserves further study.

3 Consider environmental protection requirements in packaging design

3.1 When designing packaging, use the same material as much as possible, and separate the materials that can coexist. A single material is used to make the packaging easy to recycle because it does not have to separate and purify the material. For example, a pure-polyester Coca-Cola bottle without a high-density polyethylene pedestal appeared on the market today, which is more convenient for regeneration and is thus welcomed.

Multi-layered composite packages must be considered for ease of separation and do not prevent reuse. 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 in circulation. The composite packaged paper and plastic are difficult to separate and difficult to purify.

3.2 Design and production of reusable packaging

The use of multipurpose packaging saves resources and reduces pollution, and should be strongly advocated. In this regard, beer and soft drinks companies do a better job. For example, beer companies such as Japan’s Asahi and Sapporo have recently developed a longevity beer bottle that is 10% stronger than the original bottle, and the average life expectancy has increased by 1 time, up to 16 years. In Europe and the United States, luxury packaging for cosmetics has emerged. The packaging is beautifully made and durable. Consumers can repeatedly add cosmetics within the original packaging to avoid discarding the packaging.

3.3 Simplify the package and achieve proper packaging

Excessive packaging creates a waste that also causes unnecessary pollution. Many countries in the world are advocating moderate packaging and have issued many corresponding laws and regulations. For example, the United Kingdom imposes restrictions on the degree of complexity of product packaging in terms of a certain degree. Exceeding the requirements imposes heavy penalties. This will force businesses to simplify packaging and reduce environmental pollution.

4 Make Packages Recyclable

As packaging waste has become a major source of environmental pollution, various countries have tried every means to recycle and reuse them.

For example, the classification and collection of packaging waste in Germany is very good. It not only recycles a large amount of useful materials, but also uses waste to incinerate electricity to generate energy, and it also greatly reduces environmental pollution.

At present, China's old packaging recycling channels are poor, and there is a big gap between developed countries and developed countries.

China is a large developing country with very low per capita resources. We should learn advanced overseas experience, do a good job in the classification of packaging, use more resources, and also reduce environmental pollution, so that we can achieve more.

Liu Beichen Tianjin University of Finance and Economics

"Commodity storage, transportation and maintenance"