Update packaging concept and build a conservation-oriented society

[Developing a recycling economy, building a resource-conserving, environment-friendly society is one of the important measures and main contents of implementing the scientific concept of development, realizing sustainable, rapid, coordinated, and healthy development of the economy and constructing a harmonious socialist society; The only way for a strong country. This is the development goal of the packaging industry in the new era and is also the direction of work for all our packaging workers. To achieve this goal, we must first update the packaging concept, and under the premise of satisfying protection and convenience, establish a simple and appropriate packaging concept to avoid excessive packaging and reduce waste of resources, thereby reducing the environmental pollution caused by packaging waste. 】





Developing a recycling economy and building a resource-conserving, environment-friendly society is one of the important measures and major components of implementing the scientific concept of development, achieving sustainable, rapid, coordinated, and healthy development of the economy and building a socialist harmonious society. It is also a building of a “powerful packaging country” under the new situation. The only way to go. This is the development goal of the packaging industry in the new era and is also the direction of work for all our packaging workers. To achieve this goal, we must first update the packaging concept, and under the premise of satisfying protection and convenience, establish a simple and appropriate packaging concept to avoid excessive packaging and reduce waste of resources, thereby reducing the environmental pollution caused by packaging waste.

1. Overpacking status

Excessive packaging theory can be defined as the protection of excess functionality, excess convenience features, over-conveyance of excess functionality and excess decorative packaging, but how to quantitatively define it? There is a lot of controversy, and each holds its word. Businesses and consumers have the opposite attitude. Some experts believe that the value of the package exceeds the value of the packaged product by 1 to 2 times, which is called overpackaging. The China Consumers Association clearly pointed out that where the packaging volume significantly exceeds 10% of the product itself, and the packaging costs significantly exceed 30% of the commodity price, it can be judged as a “commercial fraud” that infringes on the rights and interests of consumers. But businesses do not think so. Some businesses believe that certain commodities such as cosmetics and wines reflect a spiritual and cultural need. They should not place too much emphasis on the cost of packaging; some businesses think that health products, gifts, etc., have special effects. To meet the needs of gifts, show noble temperament, but also should not be too much emphasis on the value of packaging; there are businessmen that over-packaging should be mainly considered from the packaging materials, as long as the packaging materials are environmentally friendly, the form and value are not important.

Regardless of the definition and standards of overpacking, its widespread presence in our commodity packaging is an indisputable fact, among which health products, foods and cosmetics are particularly prominent. The boxes made of solid wood and metal are lined with finely-lined silk fabrics, and some also have "bundled" watches and other items. There are three layers inside and three layers outside, and the layered product packages are peeled off. The final physical object is or Small or poor value. The public opinion of the public opinion on the over-packing of mooncakes in the Mid-Autumn Festival is still in the ears, and the nourishing health products and famous wines of the Spring Festival have come back again and again. When you sing me to the stage, you are getting more and more aggressive.

Looking at the current packaging market, overpacking mainly takes the following forms.

The first is excessive structure. Some goods deliberately increase the number of packaging layers, and increase the middle packaging between the inner packaging and the outer packaging. The appearance of the packaging is rough and the appearance is notorious; in fact, the packaging of some products is too large, but the actual product is very small, and there are suspicions that the guests are ignoring each other; Other products use excessively thick cushioning materials, which have excessive protection functions and are also over-packaged.

The second is excessive material. In the packaging of moon cakes, many use solid wood and metal products, which greatly increase the cost of packaging, and the use of packaging waste is useless.

The third is excessive decoration. In order to improve the noble qualities of goods, businesses often ignore the value of the goods themselves, blindly adopt good packaging materials, advanced printing technology, increase the cost of packaging, and some even add several times or even several times the value of goods in the commodity. Gifts, increase the price of goods.

2. Overpacking hazards

The purpose of the packaging is to protect the goods from damage, to facilitate transportation, storage and the consumer to carry. Based on this, it is aesthetically pleasing and can increase selling points, can play a broad role, and is conducive to the sale of goods. Appropriate packaging is undoubtedly necessary and beneficial. However, excessive packaging goes to the other extreme, exaggerating the function of packaging, misleading consumer attitudes, and harming the interests of consumers and society. Excessive packaging overuse of resources, so that society bears excessive packaging costs, the harm in the following aspects.

First, a lot of resources are wasted. The raw materials for the packaging industry, such as paper, rubber, glass, steel, plastics, etc., use raw materials and come from wood, petroleum, steel, etc. These are all scarce resources in our country. If it is used for over-packaging, the use of these resources in large amounts will be consumed at one time, and recycling without corresponding recycling will cause great waste. As shown in Figure 1, the amount of paper packaging used in China reached 11.89 million tons in 2000, and it has been increasing year by year (Figure 2). If you count the amount of paper used for packaging of all commodities and the trees to be felled, it is undoubtedly an alarming figure. The rapid disappearance of forests has caused serious soil erosion and desertification. The ecological function of the area is being misaligned. China's total terrestrial water resources are 280 million cubic meters, ranking sixth in the world, but only 2,200 cubic meters of water resources per capita, only 1/4 of the world's average level, ranking 88th in the world. Water caused the company to stop production and reduce industrial output value by 100 billion yuan. There are already a lot of forests turned into wrapping paper. It can be said that the more the Carton is used, the faster the green disappears, and the overpacking has added to the depletion of resources. Taking the most commonly used corrugated paper as an example, it is mainly divided into 3 layers, 5 layers, and 7 layers. The 3 layers in developed countries account for 90%, while in China, it mainly consists of 5 layers, which costs more than one billion yuan each year. Imported pulp and paperboard, if converted into 3-layer corrugated paper, cost savings of one-third.

This is just a paper packaging industry data, as well as metals, plastics, glass and other industries, the figures are shocking. Excessive packaging, the destructive power of limited resources, makes it hard to imagine.

The second is pollution of the environment. Consumers abandon large amounts of packaging waste and aggravate environmental pollution. Annual emissions of packaging waste in China account for one-third of the city's solid waste in terms of weight, and as much as 1/2 in volume, and emissions increase at an alarming rate of 10% per year. The cost of overpackaging is considerable, and these overpacks, which consume a lot of resources, all become household garbage in the hands of consumers, and become a major environmental pollution hazard. As a result, the amount of urban waste collection and treatment increases exponentially. The relevant situation shows that among the 1.32 million tons of rubbish produced each year in Wuhan, there are at least 230,000 tons of packaging materials for various commodities. If excessive packaging is reduced, garbage will be reduced by 20% in one year. Of the 1.65 million tons of municipal waste produced in Guangzhou each year, the packaging of various commodities amounts to 330,000 tons, accounting for 1/5 of the total. In addition, plastics, printing pigments, and metal compounds in packaging waste will become wastes that are difficult to decompose and cause pollution and damage to the fragile natural environment. This in turn creates waste pollution to the environment and causes environmental problems for humans. Increasing pollution and damage.

The third is to harm social interests. First, excessive packaging infringes the interests of consumers. Consumers are the dominant market, and the market is adjusted to the needs of consumers. The over-packaging of consumers now takes advantage of the psychological characteristics of consumers in consumer behavior, so that after paying the necessary value of goods, they will add additional A huge amount of packaging fees is imposed on consumers, virtually harming the interests of consumers. Second, excessive packaging also hurts the interests of the company. Fierce and unfair competition has caused excessive flooding in the market. Enterprises are seeking more profits to use the method of exaggerating packaging decoration to obtain more value from consumers. In the short term, the profits of enterprises may increase significantly. However, in the long run, this will undoubtedly seriously damage the image of the company, and it will be detrimental to the sustainable development of the company, leaving the company's reputation system to collapse. The third is damaging social interests. The over-packaging style has created a luxurious and exaggerated social atmosphere, which has contributed to the bad style of hospitality and gifts and is not conducive to building a conservation-minded society.

3, countermeasures and suggestions

Excessive packaging wastes resources, pollutes the environment, and jeopardizes social interests. The country, society, and individuals are all harmless, but they must be resolutely eliminated.

To avoid over-packaging, I think first of all, we should raise awareness and change our ideas. Establish a simple packaging concept, promote proper packaging, and build a conservation-minded society. Social, corporate, and individual individuals have responsibilities. Our packaging workers are incumbent upon us. Individuals should establish a green consumption concept and advocate simple consumption. China has always been a state of etiquette since ancient times. It has paid attention to affection and paid attention to courtesy. However, in the interpersonal communication, we should cherish friendship and give light gifts. We must lay emphasis on actual face and face, so that there is no soil for survival if there is excessive packaging. The society should increase its propaganda, guide simple, rational consumption concepts, and cultivate a healthy social outlook. The government and trade associations should strengthen guidance and vigorously guide enterprises to establish and strengthen the concept of simple packaging, oppose over-packaging, and promote proper packaging so as to achieve the purpose of cost savings and resource conservation. Packaging workers should also proceed from reality, rationally design and promote economical and practical, beautiful and generous packaging concepts, both to achieve the function of packaging, but also to avoid excessive.

In addition, the establishment of a packaging recycling mechanism, the effective recycling of packaging waste can also avoid over-packaging. At present, China's existing recycling mechanism is not perfect, only a small amount of corrugated cardboard, cans, glass beer bottles, etc. can be recycled, and a large number of packaging waste is still landfill, incineration and other treatment, which both waste resources and pollute the environment. In the future, the recycling mechanism for packaging waste should be gradually improved, and enterprises should be encouraged to recycle packaging waste. Legislation can also be prohibited against excessive packaging. Excessive packaging standards should be implemented in specific industries and categories, and laws and regulations should be established to prohibit excessive packaging. Learn from the experience of other countries and collect tax on packaging. Many foreign countries have adopted economic control measures to increase packaging tax and effectively reduce packaging waste. These experiences are worth learning from.


Yang Xiaojun
Reprinted from: Chinese Packaging