Green Packaging and Waste Paper Recycling (I)

[Abstract] The relationship between green packaging and recycling paper and paper products is discussed. The waste paper can play the role of "invisible forest". Recycling waste paper and paper products is of great significance to our country. It is suggested that China should increase the recycling, processing, and utilization of waste paper and make full use of this valuable fiber resource.
Keywords: sustainable development; waste paper recycling; protection of resources and ecological environment The world packaging industry is undergoing a major transformation under the impact of the environmental protection wave, 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 for wood” are the future direction of development. China's packaging industry should focus its efforts on the development and utilization of paper and paperboard, but in China, With limited forest resources and shortage of water resources, the demand for raw materials in the paper industry cannot be met. Therefore, the recycling of discarded paper and paper products is of vital importance to our country.
1 "Green Packaging" requires the recycling of waste paper and paper products
The green wave with the protection of the environment and sustainable development as the core. 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 comes from nature and can return to nature. The paper packaging products made from natural materials meet the requirements of green packaging. “To replace paper with plastic” and “paper for wood” is 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 China’s paper and paperboard consumption. If China takes Effective measures to recycle waste paper products can 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 paper products 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 transcripts, there is a strong contrast. (To be continued)