Environmental protection wind--by moon cake moderate packaging

In the coming months, China’s annual Mid-Autumn Festival is approaching, and the colorful moon cake packaging will come to the fore again. For this reason, there was an upsurge of discussion about the “appropriate packaging of moon cakes”. As a worker in the corrugated box packing industry, I am very happy that people in China have such "moderate packaging" environmental awareness. This shows that people in China have begun to realize that the unworn packaging of goods is over-packaging, and that removing the sensational enjoyment that brings us magnificent beauty will also bring us a series of sequelae, one of which is the environmental pollution caused by the packaging waste.

By the introduction of moon cake packaging, let us look at the entire packaging field and see the world. Look at whether other countries attach importance to excessive packaging, and whether measures have been taken to reduce the environmental pollution caused by packaging waste?

As packaging is increasingly used in people's lives, many countries in the world have paid attention to environmental issues caused by excessive packaging. They have imposed restrictions on the packaging and packaging of waste and regulations, and some guilds have also signed an agreement for self-contracting:

The EU Council passed the 94/62/EC "Packaging and Packaging Waste Act" on December 20, 1994, and began implementation on June 30, 1996;

United States: As of 1994, 37 states have already enacted regulations for the management of packaging waste. In 1994, more than 100 recycling and recycling laws took effect, and there were 77 new related regulations.

United Kingdom: Passed the "Packaging Waste Regulations" in May 1996;

Germany: The German Packaging Act was passed in 1991 and was revised in 1998 according to the "Packaging and Packaging Waste Guide";

Japan: The "Recycling Regulations" and "Amendment of Waste Removal Regulations" were promulgated and enforced in 1991 and 1992; the "Energy Conservation and Promotion Recovery Law" was formally in force in June 1993, and the packaging law became part of it;

Austria: The "Packaging Regulations" were passed in October 1992 and the "Planning Objectives Regulations" were subsequently released for supplementation. In 1994, the “Draft Packing Regulations” was introduced, which more precisely elaborated the viewpoints of the above laws and packaged them in Europe.

"Guide" content is accommodated;

Australia: The government drafted a book entitled "National Packaging Guidelines" for industrial, consumer and environmental protection agencies and published it in 1991. Queensland established the Waste Management Strategy (Draft) in May 1994;

Denmark: In 1981, the "Container Packaging Recycling Act" was introduced. In 1992, the Danish Ministry of Environment and the Industrial Packaging Association reached the "Waste and Recycling Treatment Plan (1993-1997)";

Netherlands: In June 1991, a voluntary agreement with the Dutch government was signed by different industries and organizations related to packaging, the Dutch Packaging Covenant;

In some other countries, since 1994, they have also formulated corresponding packaging laws and regulations, such as Singapore, South Korea, the Philippines, and Brazil.

The above-mentioned laws and regulations are just a drop in the ocean. Countries in the world have spared no effort to protect the environment of their own countries. They have formulated corresponding regulations to restrict the packaging of waste, and even formed new trade barriers to restrict imports. So, what about our country's attitude toward packaging?

Let us first look at the current situation of carton packaging in China. With the increasing frequency of China’s international trade, the corrugated paper box packaging industry is also rapidly developing. Especially since China entered the WTO, the state has cancelled some administrative actions to facilitate the international trade in order to comply with WTO requirements. In July, our inspection and quarantine system liberalized the restrictions on the licenses of export carton packaging enterprises, making the number of enterprises that can produce export carton packs tolerant, and some low-end carton packaging companies also flooded into the export trade field. The general packaging quality is poor, and the awareness of environmental protection is weak. In international trade, there have been incidents such as returns, compensation payments and so on. Some time ago, my inspection and quarantine department carried out spot checks on 146 batches of packaging materials and accessories (used mostly for export) across the country. The results showed that there were still heavy metals in the packaging materials that exceeded the EU standard; Moreover, according to relevant statistics, China’s annual foreign exchange losses caused by poor packaging have reached 10%, and some of them have been caused by inconsistent environmental protection requirements.

As a manager of export carton packaging, I sincerely hope that China's carton packaging entrepreneurs will improve their own packaging quality, attach importance to environmental protection, and make their own packaging a green packaging, so that their own companies can enter the international market smoothly, and China's corrugated carton packaging will be elated. .

What is gratifying is that China is also making unremitting efforts to achieve this goal. Since 1979, China has successively enacted the "Environmental Protection Law of the People's Republic of China" and the "Solid Waste Law", etc., which stipulates the management of packaging waste. The Regulations, the revised draft of the Law on the Prevention of Environmental Pollution Caused by Solid Waste, which is currently under consideration, has included "restricted over packaging". Our country has already begun to realize that the packaging waste caused by excessive packaging has great harm to the environment and allowing it to flood will certainly threaten the living space for future generations.

At present, there are about 127 countries and regions in the world that have signed environmental agreements with each other. The issue of environmental protection has become a new kind of green barriers to trade and trade. Any package that violates environmental protection regulations will have a serious impact. To its competitiveness in the international market, China has now joined the "WTO", and international trade has become increasingly fragile. Some cartons packaging companies in our country should pay attention and should make their own carton packaging lightweight and environmentally friendly. The direction of development in order to not be eliminated by the international market.

(author/Zhang Xiaorong)
<Corrugated boxes> July 2005 issue