Comprehensive understanding of "green packaging"

The pollution of packaging waste to the environment is becoming a global pollution hazard. How to properly select and properly handle packaging and packaging waste is an important task faced by packaging workers. "Green packaging", as the popular name for environmental friendly packaging materials and products, is being accepted by the majority of users, but there are many misunderstandings in practice. To develop “green packaging” and reduce the pollution of packaging waste to the environment, we must start from the source of packaging materials, choose the appropriate processing method, and formulate a reasonable policy for the development of the industry. Only in this way, the environmental pollution of packaging waste can be truly realized. Get curbed.

"Green packaging" is relative to "white pollution". The so-called "white pollution" mainly refers to the destruction of packaging waste to the environment, because most of the packaging is white or colorless.

Correspondingly, "green packaging" refers to packaging products that have no or little environmental pollution during production and processing, are safe and sanitary during use, and are environmentally friendly in waste disposal. "Green packaging" includes three major aspects: material selection, product processing methods and waste disposal. However, in actual life, many people have a certain degree of understanding of "white pollution" and "green packaging".

Misunderstanding of "White Pollution" Understanding

For many people, the pollution of packaging waste to the environment is simply or mainly understood as the pollution to the landscape environment. This is very flat.

The main reason for the railway sector to disable the foaming lunch boxes is that the foaming lunch boxes cannot be decomposed, resulting in landscape pollution along the railway line. Afterwards, many cities also followed suit and even formulated national bans. In fact, this is a very absurd reason.

The main cause of landscape pollution along the railway line is not the foam plastic lunch box, but the litter of passengers. It is caused by nobody recycling the waste along the way. Now that these foamed lunch boxes and instant noodle boxes have been replaced with cartons, has the problem been solved? Therefore, the pollution to the landscape is not primarily the responsibility of packaging waste, but is caused by improper living habits and recycling policies.

There is an argument that plastic packaging is not environmentally friendly. It means that plastic waste does not rot in the land for hundreds of years and it will degrade the soil. It sounds reasonable to hear it, and careful analysis has also been flawed. What is buried in the soil will not degrade the soil? Ceramics buried in the ground will not be bad for a millennium. If you replace all beverage containers today with ceramic bottles, glass bottles, metal cans, or composite paper containers and use them once and then bury them in the ground, what will happen to the land?

If the foothold to solve environmental pollution is landfill, then it can be said that all packaging materials are not environmentally friendly.

Misunderstanding in "Green Packaging" Understanding

Many people think that the packaging that waste can handle easily is "green packaging." "PVC is not environmentally friendly because it generates harmful gases, and paper packs are burned without the generation of harmful substances, so they are environmentally friendly." — Consumers and non-professional media reporters often judge whether or not the material is conducive to environmental protection based on their own common sense. A typical example of the rumored story is that all paper packaging is labeled "green", which is a very harmful trend.

Other misconceptions about green packaging include:

* Green packaging is a new form of packaging;

* Green packaging can reduce costs;

* Green packaging can form a new big industry.

Material selection is fundamental

Paper, plastic, metal and glass are the four major packaging materials and cover almost all types of packaging products. Comparing the environmental performance of different materials should be considered from several aspects such as the recyclability of resources, the continuous use of materials, the energy consumption of materials processing, pollution, and processing costs.

Resource regeneration

The raw materials for papermaking are mainly forest trees. Plastics, metals, and glass are derived from petroleum, natural gas, or coal, iron ore, and quartz stones.

From the point of view of resource regeneration, the forest has unique advantages and good regenerability. The time required for a tree to grow from tree to seed is much shorter than that of oil and ore. It can be said,

Except for forests, whether it is oil, natural gas, coal, iron ore, or even quartz, its resource regenerability is only a theoretical one.

However, this does not mean that the global forest resources can be regenerated and consumed in a balanced manner. The fact is that the consumption of forest trees in the world is far greater than that of newly planted forests. Moreover, secondary forests do not have the ecological effects of virgin forests. In other words, the original forest is also not reproducible. It is also worth noting that forests exist on the surface of the earth and the impact on the human living environment is much more direct and serious than that of minerals.

We cannot deny the fact that any mineral is limited. But at the same time, it cannot be denied that modern civilization is based on mining and petroleum reclaiming. Whether it is oil or iron ore, its opening and use is not exclusive to the packaging industry. In fact, the production of plastic polyolefin raw materials is a by-product of petroleum processing. When plastics are not invented, they can only be used as fuel or directly discharged. The production of plastics can be said to be the point of art of science and technology. It is itself a kind of turning waste into treasure.

However, the known reserves of iron ore, aluminum or quartz, or even coal are very rich, and their impact on the human living environment is far less than the deforestation.

The continuous use of resources

Few people mention this concept. In fact, due to the different characteristics of different materials, the "life cycle" is also different. For example, the aluminum plate can be processed into the same aluminum can after being made into an aluminum can; for example, the glass can be used not only for multiple times after being made into beer bottles, but also can be processed into glass bottles after smashing; and some plastic and paper After the packaging is used, similar products can be made again. However, during the "replication" process, not only will there be losses, but the performance will also be degraded. For example, in the process of repeating papermaking, the fibers become shorter, and the performance of the newly made paper is reduced, and the performance and grade of the original paper can no longer be achieved. Plastics are generally not as good as they were once they are repelletized. Obviously, the more times that can be repeated, the longer the "life cycle" of materials and the greater the contribution to the environment.

Among the four materials, although the resources of paper seem to be the most abundant, the paper's "life cycle" is also the shortest. From this point of view, paper is not more environmentally friendly than other materials.

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Contamination from processing

When paper, metal or plastic resins are made from raw materials and reprocessed into paper packaging products, metal packaging containers, plastic packaging products and glass packaging products, not only energy is consumed, but also pollution is generated. Whether a package is environmentally friendly cannot be ignored.

No matter which kind of material, it consumes a lot of energy during the manufacturing process. A lot of wastes are produced in the papermaking process. The formation of acid rain is mainly related to the three wastes produced by papermaking. Last year, China shut down thousands of small paper mills because the wastewater discharged from these small paper mills seriously polluted rivers and lakes. Can not rule out some of the major foreign paper mills have good three waste treatment devices and measures, but in terms of the actual situation in China, among the four kinds of packaging materials, paper manufacturing process is the worst environmental protection. Metal plates also produce three kinds of waste in the manufacturing process, especially waste residue. However, relatively speaking, companies that can manufacture cold rolled sheet or aluminum plate for packaging are very large-scale metallurgical plants. Relatively speaking, environmental protection measures are relatively complete. Similarly, the production of plastic resins can only be completed by large-scale petrochemical companies. Not only are the three resins generated during the synthesis of plastic resins less, but these modern companies also have stricter measures for environmental protection. The production of glass requires a lot of energy, but also produces three kinds of waste, but the degree of harm is not high.

The commonality of these four types of materials is that they all have mature processing technology and can be mass-produced. The difference is that glass does not need to be made into an intermediate product and the final packaged product can be made directly from the raw material.

From paper to paper packaging products, or from sheet metal to metal containers, and from plastic resins to plastic containers, there is not a lot of pollution.

Effect of product processing methods

The choice of different materials and products has different contributions to environmental protection; the same materials, the choice of different processing methods, will also have a great impact on the material's "life."

Reuse is the highest level of environmental protection

The internationally popular "reuse, reduce weight loss, and recycling" is widely recognized as the three principles of environmental protection. However, these three items actually have different degrees of environmental protection.

Reuse is the highest level of environmental protection because it maximizes the life of products and materials. For example, glass bottles containing beer and condiments can be reused five times or more, and cans can only be used once and need to be recycled. Another example is beverage packaging. PET bottles are the most commonly used containers, and most of them need to be recycled after one use. For this reason, Europe has already begun to produce thick PET bottles, which can be recycled many times, while China is still making efforts to reduce weight. Similar to dairy products, glass bottles of milk or yogurt, bottles can be reused after drinking, while cartons and plastic cups can only be used once.

The plastic turnover box is a common transportation and packaging method for beverages and beer and can be used many times. However, in recent years, many beer companies have switched to using disposable cartons. This is actually not an environmental protection practice.

Most of the composite materials are not environmentally friendly

Single-layer materials often fail to meet performance requirements, so paper and plastic are often used in the form of composites on packaging, such as composite paper containers and large packages for liquid food and beverage packaging.

Some plastic bags.

In fact, composites are often not capable of recreating similar products. For example, a composite paper container is a composite of paper, plastic, aluminum foil, and adhesive. After one use, paper, plastic, and aluminum foil cannot be separated. It can only be used as a plate for other purposes. It actually shortens paper and plastic. And the "life cycle" of aluminum foil. Plastic bags made of PP, PE or PVC can be processed into plastic bags or used for the production of other plastic daily products after use, but if these materials are compounded with nylon or other high-barrier materials, they can only be incinerated after use. There is no value for re-use.

Reducing weight loss and weight loss can reduce the amount of packaging materials used. However, it should be noted that if a thinner single material can achieve thinner composite performance, then using a single material to make the packaging is more environmentally friendly. way of doing. At this point, glass and metal packaging are undoubtedly more environmentally friendly.

Effect of different packaging forms

The same is true for plastic packaging. The environmental contribution of making bottles and bags is even different. This is because the variety of plastics with heat-sealing properties is very limited. Therefore, most plastic bags have to be used in the form of composite materials. Bottles, however, are different. Either injection molded or extruded bottles can be made from a single material. However, a single material product is easier to recycle or recycle after use.

In addition, the manufacture of packaging products also directly affects the recycling and sorting process. For example, ultra-thin plastic bags, due to their light weight, fly in the wind after use, causing difficulties in recycling and causing landscape pollution.

Impact on waste disposal

Recycling is the basis of all waste disposal, and sorting is a key part of processing.

Recycling is driven by policies and interests, and Europe has already had successful experiences to learn from. Sorting, on the other hand, requires technical support, especially when it comes to the production of packaging products.

The effect of sorting