Discussion on Green Packaging and Active Packaging

With the rapid development of China's economy, the packaging industry has also developed rapidly. It can be said that the prosperity of the commodity economy cannot be separated from the development of the packaging industry.

However, with the progress of urbanization in China, the phenomenon of “garbage against the city” has become more and more serious. Garbage is found everywhere along roads, streets, along railway lines, enterprises, and tourist attractions. The rubbish piles up like mountains, mostly for packaging waste. A lot of garbage is dumped on the outskirts of the city, occupying more and more land and causing pollution to the environment. On the one hand, the packaging industry has made great contributions to economic development; on the other hand, it has also caused pollution to the environment. Because nearly half of the waste materials are packaging materials, many are difficult to rot and recycled. In addition, many packaging materials release a large amount of chlorine, fluorine, hydrocarbons, and other gases during the production process, destroying the ozone layer and causing a greenhouse effect.

1 Green packaging

With the deepening of human use of nature and the transformation of natural activities, human activities have an increasingly greater impact on the environment. The consumption of resources and the emission of waste exceed the regenerative capabilities and self-purification capabilities of the earth. The resources of the earth are becoming increasingly scarce. Increased environmental pollution and ecological destruction. In order to protect human common homes, the call for attention and development of green packaging is increasing. Green packaging means that during the entire product life cycle, it is harmless to the ecological environment and human health. It can be recycled and recycled, and it can promote proper packaging for sustainable development. Green packaging must comply with the principle of "4R1D" and should generally have five aspects: the reduction of packaging, the ease of reuse, the ease of recovery, and the ease of recycling . By means of recycling, recovery, purification, and other means of reuse, the purpose of reuse is achieved through production of recycled products, incineration of heat energy, composting of soil, and other measures. Finally, packaging waste can be degradable, and it does not eventually form permanent waste.

1.1 Main Ways to Achieve Green Packaging

1.1.1 Promote the use and encouragement of research and development of green materials

Green packaging is the development direction of the packaging industry. To achieve a green packaging long way to go, we must start from the source, packaging materials should try to use green materials, common green materials are biodegradable plastic, paper, bamboo, glass, metal , edible materials, etc. These are traditional packaging materials. With the development of high technology, many countries have developed a number of new types of green packaging materials. For example, the United States uses soybean protein, added enzymes and other processing agents to make soybean protein packaging film for food packaging, can maintain good moisture, prevent the entry of oxygen, and can be cooked together with food. China has also developed a biodegradable plastic PHB (polyalkylene carbonate).

1.1.2 Focus on Recycling, Reuse, and Recycling of Packaging Materials

Reusable packaging can save resources, such as the implementation of beer, beverages, soy sauce, vinegar and other packaging using glass bottles, repeated use. The PET bottles and PC bottles popular in some European countries can be reused more than 20 times.

1.1.3 Conduct green engineering education and cultivate citizens' environmental awareness

Vigorously publicizing the environmental protection significance of green packaging and protecting the environment are obligations that every citizen should fulfill, constantly raising people's awareness of environmental protection and benefiting the ideological realm of generations. Designers must investigate the specific requirements of the international market for environmentally friendly packaging, such as regulations on environmentally friendly packaging in the importing country, consumer awareness of environmental protection, green organization activities, and development trends in environmental packaging, in order to fully consider these factors in the packaging design. In addition, in the packaging design should also consider highlighting the signs of environmental marketing, to represent a particular product on the environmental quality in order to obtain the goodwill of consumers to achieve the purpose of expanding marketing. Through education and guidance, the concept of green consumption of consumers is enhanced, the atmosphere of the green packaging market is created, and green technologies and green industries are continuously developed.

1.1.4 Actively implement relevant regulations and standards, and tilt the policy towards green packaging

Actively guide enterprises to develop, produce and use green packaging materials, and give certain preferential policies to impose certain penalties for violations. The government must increase incentives for green packaging companies to give policy tilt in project approval, market access, taxation, and credit. Many countries restrict or impose mandatory supervision and management on the packaging materials of imported goods in the form of laws and regulations. Only packaging materials for export goods meet the requirements of the importing country before they can be allowed to enter the importing country. Otherwise, the customs of the importing country will not release. According to the ISO14000 environmental management system international standards, any country that does not comply with this standard can refuse to import, so that products that do not meet the standards are excluded from international trade. There are few types of environmental labeling products in China and it is far from meeting the needs of foreign trade development. Only by following this international trend and adopting active and effective means to catch up can we fundamentally protect our country’s foreign trade interests.

2 active packaging <br> <br> developed countries to ensure food safety of consumers and businesses to distinguish the voice and value-added of their products increasingly high demand for packaged foods simply Gone are the days , It is imperative to carry out "positive" packaging of food. Active packaging of food not only creates a barrier between food and the environment, but also interacts with food to improve food quality, safety, counter time, and usage.

2.1 Deoxygenation Packing Deoxygenation packs are one of the commonly used methods for fresh-keeping packaging, which is the incorporation of oxygen scavenger into the pack to eliminate oxygen in the pack or to reduce the oxygen concentration to a certain level. Oxygen-removal packaging can prevent the oxidation of food oils and pigments, inhibit the growth and reproduction of aerobic microorganisms; can maintain the aroma of food, prevent spoilage, and extend its value-preserving period; for food and other objects, it can prevent pests. And mildew.

2.2 Information Packaging Information packaging is the packaging that can provide information that reflects the status of the contents of a package. Put the enzyme color indicator or other biosensor into the package. When the food spoils and deteriorates, the package will change color to remind sellers and consumers. For fruit packaging, it can show the maturity of the fruit so that consumers can see at a glance whether the product is suitable for purchase.

2.3 Expanded Functional Packaging In fact, active packaging is not unfamiliar to many consumers. The most well-known is the number of canned cans. When the pull-down ring is pulled down, the pressure inside the can drops, and the fresh beer surface will foam. There is already a beer can on the market that can be automatically cooled. The beer cans are divided into two parts, the upper half contains beer, and there is an additional compartment containing a water-like gel inside the tank wall. The lower part is a sealed vacuum with a desiccant inside. When the lower part is twisted hard, the sealant is torn, the air pressure inside the can drops, and the upper part of the water gel rapidly evaporates, thereby cooling the beer. This kind of packaging is not a traditional packaging, and it has further expanded the packaging function.

2.4 The Future of Active Packaging Many technologies for active packaging are still in the research stage, especially in Europe. In addition to economic considerations, there are other reasons that hinder the widespread use of active packaging, such as food and consumer goods regulations. , And consumers' skepticism about packaging materials. However, this situation has now changed, and the European Commission has played a role in launching many investigations on this issue. In any case, active packaging in Europe will become a part of the packaging market and will be increasingly accepted by consumers. However, active packaging is not a panacea. It requires careful consideration of technical and economic constraints and detailed study of the improved results. The current trend is to use positive reactive substances directly in packaging materials. This is the result of technological progress and European legislative activities guaranteeing the legitimacy of positive packaging.

Positive packaging has been popular in the European market but it is only used on specific occasions. In general, positive packaging helps to improve the quality of packaging, both from the consumer and from the retail market, until there are no better solutions. The future trend is: oxygen packaging will become an important part of the active packaging market; there will be more and more positive functions integrated into the packaging materials; positive packaging materials, mainly moisture absorption and oxygen absorption materials need to be properly Storage, thereby increasing the difficulty of the logistics of packaging materials; the application of improved air (protection gas, vacuum) packaging is still very important.

Experts on green packaging and active packaging predict that active packaging will become the future trend of the world food packaging industry. As more and more companies realize the huge commercial benefits of active packaging, there will be more food products. Packaging will develop towards positive packaging trends. $Page break $

3 Green packaging and active packaging should be coordinated and developed. 3.1 Vigorously develop active packaging, prevent redundant packaging, and promote simple and reliable packaging. Currently, there is still a big gap between China's packaging industry and the world's advanced level. We must vigorously develop active packaging. Packaging technology connotation. Our packaging materials, packaging machinery and equipment are also heavily dependent on imports, and there are not many products with independent intellectual property rights. Therefore, the focus of China's packaging industry should be on scientific and technological progress, strengthen the study of packaging materials and packaging machinery, starting from the actual situation, explore a packaging road in line with China's national conditions.

Correctly understand the meaning of green packaging and active packaging, and prevent the two from being placed in an opposing position. Green packaging is often interpreted as the environmental protection of packaging products, and mistakenly regards the use of easily degradable materials as a green packaging, regardless of whether the production process of packaging products causes environmental pollution and waste of resources. Packaging is regarded as green packaging, while plastic packaging is placed on the opposite side of green packaging, and paper-based plastic molding is fully implemented. In fact, if paper packaging is handled improperly, it will cause pollution, and plastic has the advantage that other materials cannot be replaced, and plastic ban will be completely prohibited. Cause greater pollution. China's forest resources are limited, and the pollution caused by papermaking with other materials is also very serious. It is not realistic to use paper for plastics. In addition, packaging design must proceed from reality and be based on facts. Under the premise of satisfying packaging functions, the packaging should be simplified, and cheap and easy-to-use environmentally friendly packaging materials should be used.

3.2 Promulgating relevant laws and regulations, and taking the road of sustainable development The relevant departments should encourage and supervise enterprises to pass environmental certification and give certain preferential policies to enterprises that produce green packaging products. According to the requirements of ISO 14000, packaging companies must pass environmental certification (EA), packaging must have environmental labeling (EI), and assess the company's environmental behavior and environmental impact, and perform a life cycle assessment of the whole process of the packaging product in order to carry out process control. The "zero pollution" process produces green products.

In short, we must continuously develop new packaging materials, new packaging technologies and new packaging technologies, and break through the bottlenecks in product packaging and product cost constraints in green packaging and active packaging. To proceed from the long-term interests of mankind and take the road of sustainable development. While vigorously developing active packaging, we must also take into account the development of green packaging. The coordinated development of the two is a prerequisite for the rapid and healthy development of the packaging industry.

Source: PACK.CN