Thoughts on China's Green Packaging (1)

I. The rise and basic meaning of green packaging

Second, the status quo and existing problems of China's green packaging

(I) The status of green packaging in China

1. Development status of China's packaging industry

China's modern packaging industry has undergone several years of adjustment since the 1970s and began to develop rapidly in the early 1980s. The situation of “first-class products, second-class packaging, and third-class prices” formerly in the world has gradually changed, and people’s ideas and understanding of packaging have also undergone qualitative changes. The added value created by the packaging of goods brings rewards to most companies. The new packaging also enables them to increase their competitiveness in the world arena. In the 20 years of development of China's packaging industry, the output value of the packaging industry has increased by an average of nearly 10%, and its share in the gross national product has also been rising. At present, it accounts for the 14th among 40 major industries in the national economy. The national investment in green packaging enterprises has exceeded 10 billion yuan, and the number of direct employees exceeds 100,000. The annual output of paper pulp is several hundred thousand tons. The production capacity of paper cutlery can exceed 5 billion (pieces) and more than 1,000 equipment production lines. The total output value of the industry exceeds 12 billion yuan. China's packaging industry assumes 2,500 billion yuan in products and 60 billion US dollars worth of export packaging every year. It has formed a relatively complete industrial system and has promoted China's economic development. 4 But there are also some problems, such as unbalanced development and unreasonable industrial structure.

2. Development of China's green packaging

Due to the pressure of green packaging for export commodities, the rise of domestic environmental protection undertakings and the support of the government, the rapid development of China's green packaging industry, the increasing use of environment-friendly packaging materials, the gradual increase in market share, and the increasing technological content Some products have also reached the international advanced level and have a better market in the international market. In recent years, in addition to the more remote areas in China, there are growing green packaging manufacturers in each region. Packaging machinery that produces green packaging products has also seen a boom in production and sales. Paper, glass, plastics and metals are the four pillars of modern packaging. Table 1 shows the output of various packaging products in China. As can be seen from the table, the output of the four kinds of packaging products has developed rapidly. In addition, the waste of resources and environmental pollution in the development of the packaging industry, like other industrial environmental issues, are valued by the government and gradually controlled as the environmental protection industry in China develops. What is particularly gratifying is that the concept of green consumption has begun to be accepted by Chinese consumers and the market for the green packaging industry has continued to expand.

Table 1: Output of various kinds of packaging products in China (10 thousand tons)
Category 1993 1995 1995 2000 2000 than 1993 Paper Products 400 570 770 1320 +920
Plastic Products 160 180 240.52 270 +110
Glassware 620 650 890 1020.36 +400.36
Metal Products 105 120 142 178.4 +73.4
Total 1285 1520 2042.52 2788.76 +1503.76
Source: Dai Hongmin: Green Packaging, Chemical Industry Press, 1st edition 2002

(II) Problems existing in the development of green packaging in China

1. The problem of environmental pollution in China has not attracted enough attention...
2. China's green packaging is limited by packaging technology

... is mainly reflected in the following points:

(1) The extent of our country's technological level is not reasonable. There are still 10%-20% of China's packaging companies' technology is quite backward. At present, only about 30% of packaging companies in China can reach the level of packaging companies in developed countries from the late 1980s to the early 1990s.

(2) China's packaging companies have weak technological development capabilities. Due to the serious lack of scientific and technological talents in China's packaging industry, the capital investment is also relatively inadequate, which has formed a proportion of professional and technical personnel in the industry in China is only about 2%, which is much lower than the average level of 6.8% in the national industry. Therefore, the talent issue has become one of the key factors in the development of this industry.

3, the application rate of green packaging is low, packaging materials are not easy to recycle

4, packaging waste increased significantly, but the recovery rate is very low

China's commodity packaging materials include metal, glass bottles, cardboard boxes and various plastic bottles, boxes, barrels, bags and so on. According to statistics, 70% of the packaging products produced in China each year are discarded after use. According to the total 18.13 million tons of packaging products produced in China in 1998, there are 12.69 million tons of waste generated, with a per capita of 10 kilograms. In addition, from the survey and statistics of the waste composition structure, we can also see that while the production volume of urban garbage in China has increased rapidly, the increase in packaging waste has become apparent. At present, the amount of domestic garbage produced by each city in China has reached 400 kilograms. According to statistics from 1999, a total of 1.14 tons of domestic garbage was removed from 668 cities across the country, and this figure is still growing at an annual rate of 8% to 10%. The average annual increase of paper content in waste components is 20%, fiber types increase by 20.5% annually, and plastics increase by 48% annually. In urban garbage, packaging has accounted for 35% to 40% of the volume. As land available for landfilling has become less and less, it has not been able to dissipate so many packages, which has caused many serious problems of urban garbage siege.

Table 2: Comparison of the recovery rate between China and developed countries National waste cardboard recycling rate Plastic recycling rate Glass, tinplate recovery rate US 27% 20% 42%
Japanese 40% 26% 45%
Germany 50% 27% 50%
China 15% 9.6% 20%
Source: Liu Beichen, “Improving Green Packaging for Packaging Development”, “Hunan Packaging”, No. 3, 2002, P5, P7)