International recycling economy to green packaging

Faced with the increasingly scarce resources and the continuing tensions in coal, electricity and oil transportation, China has to re-examine its own social and economic behaviors and development history and seek a path for sustainable development. To this end, we must establish a scientific concept of development and vigorously develop a circular economy.

As a packaging designer, on the road of economic development, he unwittingly designs packaging and inadvertently acts as a destroyer of the environment. He also happily caters to malformed consumption and he does not hesitate to become a waste producer. What about an environmental protector? This is an unavoidable issue for every packaging designer. It is no secret that what China currently lacks is not only environmentally-conscious producers and consumers, but also lacks a large number of green designers. China’s ecological environment is suffering from predatory human destruction. Therefore, each packaging designer shoulders an unshirkable responsibility.

Circular economy is the abbreviation of Closing Materials Cycle, which is essentially an ecological economy. It requires the use of ecological laws rather than mechanistic laws to guide the economic activities of human society. The opposite is the traditional economy, which is a linear economy with one-way flow of “resource-product-pollution emissions”. It is characterized by high extraction, low utilization, and high emissions. In this kind of economy, people extract high-intensity materials and energy from the earth, and then massively discharge pollution and waste into water systems, air, and soil. The use of resources is extensive and one-off. Continuing to turn resources into waste to achieve quantitative growth in the economy. In contrast, circular economy requires the organization of economic activities into a feedback process of "resource-product-renewable resources" characterized by low exploitation, high utilization, and low emissions.

The so-called green packaging refers to the package of goods that is conducive to the protection of human health and the ecological environment. Green packaging is a circular economy in the packaging field, and it is the application and concrete embodiment of the circular economy concept in the packaging field. Green packaging generally has seven connotations: First, the implementation of packaging reduction [Reduce]. The packaging minimizes the use of packaging materials under the conditions of protection, convenience, sales, and other functions. The second is that the packaging should be easy to reuse [Reuse], and the packaging can be reused after proper use of certain functions. The third is easy to recycle [Recycle]. Through the production of recycled products, incineration and utilization of heat energy, composting to improve soil and other measures to achieve the purpose of reuse. The fourth is to use [Refill] for refilling. Containers such as cans and bottles can be refilled after being recycled. Fifth, packaging waste can be degraded [Degradable]. In the end, it does not form permanent waste, so as to achieve the purpose of improving the soil. 4R1D is recognized by the world as the development of green packaging principles. Sixth, packaging materials should be non-toxic and harmless to humans and organisms. Packaging materials should not contain toxic elements, germs, or heavy metals; or the content of these should be controlled below relevant standards. Seventh, packaging products from the collection of raw materials, materials processing, manufacturing products, product use, waste recycling and regeneration, until the final processing of the entire process should not cause harm to the human body and the environment.

As a packaging designer, there should be a strong sense of environmental protection. In the design process, full consideration should be given to the function, structure, cycle of the packaging, and finally to the waste disposal. Accurate and reasonable selection of materials should be as reasonable as possible. , saving materials, beautiful and practical, plus perfect ideas will make green packaging a popular packaging. Green packaging design should generally consider the following issues and take corresponding measures:

From the design perspective, first of all, the functional considerations of green packaging design is to analyze in detail the proper functions and the most basic functional characteristics of the packaging products according to the characteristics of the packaging products, and further evaluate whether the realization of these functions consumes relatively little. Materials and energy have caused the least load on the environment. Second, from the structural point of view. The analysis of the green packaging design from the morphological structure of the packaging is mainly to make the packaging structure more scientific, practical and beautiful. At this level, we first carefully determine the basic concept of product attributes, and under its framework to consider how to improve product impact on the environment, in the design process, we must not only analyze the product's functional structure, but also analyze the product's material structure. In the aspect of functional structure, firstly, the shape, mass, category, attribute, and scope of transportation of the packaged goods are ascertained, and the functions of the structure and function of the packaged goods or the functions of the accessories are analyzed and the purpose of use of the packaged goods is further clarified. Secondly, analyze the overall structure and function of packaging design, and consider whether it is possible to combine relevant functions or reduce the number of attachments, and whether the materials are used most rationally. Finally, we can analyze whether we can save material and reduce the volume and weight. In terms of material structure, analyze the properties of packaging materials and whether the use of packaging is configured properly. Analyze the overall analysis of the product's material composition and detachability, and use of actual results; try to reduce the material types in the same package to facilitate classification and recovery. Also, from the aspect of the cycle. Considering how to design from the packaging cycle, it is convenient to describe the resource consumption and environmental load in the whole package cycle. The specific design methods are: First, establish the operation framework of the packaging cycle; Second, list the packaging Total consumption of materials, assessment of energy consumption in the state of raw materials; 3. Measurement of energy consumption of packaging products during transportation and use; 4. Determination of recycling efficiency of recycled materials in packaging products; 5. Determination of final waste of packaging products Quantity. Finally, from the graphic text aspect. In the performance of the design language, more emphasis should be placed on promoting information on environmental protection. Elements such as patterns, names, colors, and texts should meet aesthetic needs, avoid visual pollution, and create a green atmosphere.

Considering materials, full consideration is given to the recycling of materials, which not only saves raw materials but also facilitates the recycling of resources. For example, the raw material of paper is mainly natural plant fibers, which will rot quickly in the natural world, will not be polluted by the environment, and can also be recycled for papermaking. Therefore, the world recognized that paper, paperboard and paper products are green products that meet the requirements of environmental protection. At present, many companies have considered the use of medium-sized, heavy corrugated boxes or white boxes to pack, and use a variety of moisture-proof fresh paper instead of plastic film for packaging. In the United States, more than half of plastic packaging has been replaced with new paper packaging. The degradability of materials should be taken into consideration in design. In 1997, the State Environmental Protection Agency announced the environmental labeling and product technical requirements for biodegradable plastic packaging products, and the implementation of the sign recognition system for biodegradable plastic packaging products will greatly improve the status of plastic packaging pollution. For example, Germany invented a packaging cup made of starch and encountered fluid insolubility, which can contain dairy products. This invention saves Germany's 4 billion plastic bottles, which are easily disassembled after being discarded. Use the same packaging material when designing the same type of packaged products to facilitate recycling. For example, a company in Germany reduced the amount of materials used for packaging from 20 to 4 to reduce the cost of waste disposal to 50%. Develop green, eco-friendly packaging materials. For example, the well-known candy packaging, glutinous rice paper and ice cream packaged corn baking packaging cups are typical edible packaging. This type of material and similar materials are both economical and pollution-free. Design and produce packaged products that can be reused for rotation. For example, an ultra-strength wine bottle developed by a certain beer company in Japan has twice the lifetime of the original bottle, and can be used by customers for up to 16 years. The environmental significance is much better than that of disposable packaging. Throughout our history, many distinctive green packaging quality connotations and ethnic packaging styles have been passed down to the present day. Their connotation of natural value and environmental protection has still not lost its glory. Such as plant leaf packaging, grass fiber packaging, bamboo packaging and so on.

Considering the “green” packaging printing in packaging and printing from the printing aspect is an integral part of the packaging industry and also faces an environmental protection issue. “Green printing” is a new concept that has frequently appeared in the printing industry in recent years to follow the world environmental protection trend. . In the past 10 years or more, flexographic printing has emerged in the packaging printing field at home and abroad. Apart from the technical advantages of flexographic printing, one of the most important factors is that it has adapted to the requirements of environmental protection and green packaging and can be widely used. Poison, no residual solvents, no environmental pollution inks and UV inks. Traditional gravure printing inks used in packaging and printing contain harmful solvents that are harmful to the human body. They not only directly harm the health of workers in gravure printing plants, but also cause certain pollution to the products packed in printed packaging products. Today, flexo printing technology has achieved a clear technological breakthrough. The application of direct digital laser engraving technology in flexo platemaking has created a seamless version, which has made flexographic technology a big step forward. The seamless version is suitable for printing multi-functional flexographic production lines of various composite materials, while also performing rotary screen and UV flexo coating and rotary bronzing. It also made flexo-printed substrates from cow cardboard, whiteboard, coated paper and newsprint to cellophane, confectionery, gold, silver, and aluminum foil.

From the perspective of comprehensive evaluation, the constituent elements of packaging and social ecological elements are the main evaluation index system for green packaging design. The evaluation of the components of packaging refers to: 1. Decompose the packaging into relatively independent parts, and briefly describe their manufacturing processes; 2. Perform data analysis and assessment on the environmental problems and health damage conditions that may occur in each part of the production process. 3) Use special manufacturing processes for parts that may be subject to pollution problems, and replace the hazardous parts with rationalized product functions and structures. The assessment of ecological factors mainly refers to: 1. Environmental attribute indicators, that is, environmental-related indicators within the safety cycle of packaged goods, including air pollution indicators, liquid pollution indicators, solid pollution indicators and noise pollution indicators; Resource attribute index, that is, the material resource index, design resource index, information resource index and human resource index used in the product cycle; 3. Energy attribute index refers to the utilization rate of green packaging products and energy consumption for recycling processing. And other indicators. For these evaluation factors and indicators, on the one hand, the current environmental protection standards, industry standards, and related policies and regulations will be used for evaluation. On the other hand, the existing products and related technologies were used as references and evaluated by comparison.

In addition, the green packaging design should also be comprehensively evaluated in terms of psychological factors and legal environment. Export packaging design should be aware of the environmental protection laws and regulations of the target market countries, the depth of consumer environmental protection consumption concepts, green organization activities, and development trends of environmental protection packaging, so that these factors can be fully taken into account in the packaging design. For example, the Australian Quarantine Bureau stipulates that all imported goods must be provided with fumigation certificates in wooden boxes. If these factors are not taken into account in the design of the packaging, it is difficult to avoid the obstruction of the export. In the design of packaging, decoration, patterns and colors, it is necessary to highlight the atmosphere of environmental protection to adapt to the modern consumer psychology of foreign consumers protecting the environment and beautifying the environment in order to achieve the purpose of expanding marketing.

In short, starting from the aspects of design, material selection, printing, production process, waste disposal, and other aspects, we will strengthen the entrance check of green packaging design.

Source: Guangzhou Printing Network