First, the rise of green packaging
With the rapid development of the global economy and the continuous improvement of human living standards, the environmental destruction and pollution of solid waste and the waste of the earth's resources are among the major environmental issues faced by the international community today. The United Nations Environment Programme has listed solid waste disposal as a major global environmental issue. The packaging waste is an important part of solid waste. People are more and more clearly aware of its harm to the environment, so green packaging has become the research and development direction of the packaging industry.
In addition, with the improvement of human environmental awareness, the mode of thinking, values, and concepts of consumption have also changed with the development of the times. In business contacts, when people buy goods, they pay more attention to the product's environmental standards, which has led to green vegetables, green food, environmental protection cars, environmental protection refrigerators, environmental protection apparel, and green packaging. It can be said that with the development of the process of world economic integration, green products in the 21st century will go deep into every link of every walk of life. People’s demands for environmental protection and improvement of their own quality of life will be further enhanced. Green products must be equipped with them. Adapt to the green packaging to truly form a complete green product.
In addition, with the development of industrial modernization and the excessive exploitation of the Earth’s resources by humans, the global environment is deteriorating. In order to protect the quality of land and human resources and the economic interests of the country, a series of environmental treaties and agreements have been established in various countries and regions. Developed one after another. According to the WTO survey, there are more than 150 multilateral environmental agreements in the world, a considerable part of which contains trade provisions, and the WTO has also established a Trade and Environment Committee to deal specifically with issues related to trade and the environment. It can be said that the issue of environmental protection will become the main issue of international economic and trade cooperation in the 21st century. Therefore, the development of green packaging will become increasingly important.
Second, the basic content of green packaging
With the heavy responsibility of reducing resource waste and protecting the environment, the packaging industry must establish innovative ideas and strengthen environmental awareness. When researching new packaging materials, new packaging technologies, designing new types of packaging products, and formulating new standards and new regulations, it is necessary to consider the development of green packaging that can reduce resource consumption and waste emissions, can easily be recycled, and can be self-degraded.
Therefore, green packaging, also known as environmentally-friendly packaging, not only plays a traditional role in preserving, protecting, indicating information about contents, identifiable and promotional, but also has the following three functions: (1) The core of packaging in economic development Sex; (2) Packaging takes responsibility for the environment; (3) Packaging is innovative in its efforts to improve conditions for human settlement (quoted by Wc Flem, “Present and Future of Packagingâ€). In 1996, the IPC`96 International Packaging Conference discussed the 3R principles for packaging waste disposal, namely Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. Specifically explained as (1) reducing the amount of use of the package and material usage; (2) prioritizing the use of reusable packaging when technical and economic conditions permit; (3) developing recyclable packaging that does not pollute the environment , can also regenerate other energy.
According to the 3R principle of packaging waste disposal, green packaging generally should have the following aspects:
(1) Under the condition of guaranteeing the packaging function, the materials used are the least, and the waste is the least. It is a kind of moderate packaging;
(2) The packaging production process has no or little environmental pollution;
(3) Packaged products do not react directly or indirectly with contents, and are harmless to humans and organisms.
(4) Packaging waste should be easily recycled and reused, and it can be quickly degraded without involving pollution during burial. It can generate new energy when incinerated and it does not pollute the environment.
In short, from the perspective of system theory, green packaging is a systematic project. It includes many aspects such as packaging containers, packaging materials, packaging techniques, production processes, and waste disposal technologies. It is a new development in the packaging discipline. Research on green packaging should continue to innovate, develop new types of energy-saving and environmental-friendly materials, improve the testing level of evaluating the performance of packaging materials, and establish corresponding standardized working procedures. At the same time, packaging machinery must be updated to the next level, packaging design and printing and decoration should contain more information and characteristics of the times. In addition, the corresponding laws and regulations for green packaging, as well as the education and training of talents will involve all aspects of each aspect. Therefore, only by paying attention to and earnestly developing the green packaging system project can we achieve the green connotation represented by green packaging and continue to develop in international trade and economic exchanges.
Third, green packaging and international trade
1. Green packaging increasingly becomes a new non-tariff barrier - green barriers
Since the 1990s, important changes have taken place in trade barriers. For the purpose of protecting limited resources, the environment and human health, developed countries have formulated a series of new standards to limit the import of foreign products and services. The relevant WTO agreement stipulates that no country may be prevented from taking the necessary measures to protect the health of human beings and living organisms and protect the environment. However, this has provided the basis for the developed countries to build green barriers. At present, there are mainly two types of “environmental trade barriers†and “health and quarantine barriersâ€. In 1998, the European Union unilaterally banned the entry of wooden crates and wooden pallets that had not been subject to sanitary quarantine inspections in China. The economic and trade losses in China alone amounted to several hundred billion yuan. After the dearth, it was announced in 2000 that wooden crates and wooden pallets imported from China, Canada, Southeast Asia, and the United States must undergo fumigation sterilization. The developed countries set green packaging standards too high and too strict in order to increase the “threshold†to prevent developing countries from entering the domestic market with high quality and low-quality goods, in order to offset the advantages of developing countries and protect their economic interests.
In 2000, the EU took more actions in environmental trade barriers, requiring home appliances, electronic products, and telecommunications supplies to recover more than 60%. The recovery rate for individual products was as high as 75%, of which 85% of packaging products were recycled. This provision will be formally implemented in January 2006. Therefore, more and more trade frictions have been caused by packaging problems in recent years. For example, disposable cutlery in China has been banned from exporting to Europe and the United States due to the lack of “environmental signsâ€. Many goods exported to Europe and the United States also have to pay high packaging waste disposal fees, etc. . As China's accession to the WTO, the impact of foreign green barriers on China's export trade will become more severe. Therefore, domestic enterprises must raise awareness of environmental protection, step up research on the laws and regulations governing foreign green barriers, and formulate corresponding countermeasures in light of our actual conditions.
2. Environmental Marking System and International Environmental Management Standards - ISO 14000
The environmental sign, also known as the green sign, means that the government department or public body issues a certificate to the enterprise according to certain environmental standards to prove that the production, use, and disposal of its products are in compliance with the environmental protection requirements, are harmless to the environment or have extremely low damage, and have Facilitate the recycling of resources.
There are three types of environmental labels: Type I, Type II, and Type III. The type I environmental sign is an eco-friendly sign. According to changes in national conditions, there are different standards for Type I signs. The type II logo is an information symbol of the nature of the "company statement." Enterprises and institutions formulate specific methods for environmental protection in accordance with their own characteristics, and open them to the society in the form of logos. The type III mark is a product quality mark and shows the environmental characteristics of the products of enterprises and institutions by means of specific data. Countries such as China and Japan use Type I signs, and the United States and the European Union and other countries use Type III signs. Since Germany first introduced this system in 1978, more than 40 countries (mostly developed countries) and regions have implemented this system. Since its implementation in 1994, China has issued several batches of products and companies that have received environmental labels.
If a product or a company has achieved environmental labeling, it is equivalent to obtaining a “pass†to enter the national market for implementing environmental labeling systems. Otherwise, the market competitiveness of the product will be severely reduced. Environmental labels are increasingly becoming the sign of enterprises to improve efficiency and establish an image.
International Environmental Management Standards - ISO 14000 is a standard set by the Environmental Management Technical Committee of the National Standards Organization (ISO). The ISO 14000 series includes ISO 14001 (Environmental Management System - Guidelines and Operational Specifications), ISO 14004 (Environmental Management System - - 100 criteria such as principles, systems, and usage specifications, divided into the following six subsystems:
Environmental Management System
Evaluation of corporate environmental behavior assessment
Environmental Audit and Supervision
ISO14000 series
Life cycle assessment
Evaluation Products Environmental Labels
Environmental guidelines in product standards
The objectives of the international environmental management standard ISO 14000 series are: to standardize the environmental protection behaviors of enterprises, public institutions, and social organizations; to reduce the environmental damage caused by production activities; to maximize the resources savings; to improve the environmental quality; to harmonize environmental protection with economic development; sustainable development. The basic contents of the ISO 14000 audit certification are: (1) The company establishes an environmental management system; (2) The company has good environmental protection and environmental performance; (3) The company's production activities comply with environmental protection regulations; (4) The company has a complete environment Reports, etc. ISO 14000 series not only follows the general principle of quality management system, but also pays more attention to the protection of environmental quality. In contrast to modern enterprises, only by attaching importance to product quality and establishing an environmental management system can we adapt to the rapid development of the market economy. Passing ISO 14000 certification is also a sign of improving corporate image and market competitiveness.
In short, the environmental labeling system and the international environmental management standard, ISO 14000 series, are the same as the international quality management standard ISO 9000 series, and it is a mandatory international standard. It will play an increasingly important role in the future of international trade. To promote humanity’s protection of Earth’s resources and human settlements