The green packaging of commodities

At present, the vast majority of plastic products are used in almost all countries in the world to package food and pharmaceutical materials. What is worrying is that under certain media environment and temperature conditions, polymer monomers and some additives in plastics will be dissolved and transferred to foods and medicines in a very small amount, causing acute or chronic poisoning, and even serious It has a carcinogenic effect. At the same time, because the world consumes a lot of plastic products each year, they are thrown away into rubbish after use, and it is very difficult to rot, which also makes environmentalists wreck their brains.

Take the disposable snack box as one of the food packaging tools as an example. It has now become "white pollution" and has become a global public hazard. According to reports, China's railway transportation system uses more than 400 million foam plastic lunch boxes a year, and the recovery rate is only 16.6%, and the rest are thrown on both sides of the railway line, forming a "white pollution belt." In some serious conditions, the train was shocking. In order to recover and bury these lunch boxes and plastic bags, the Ministry of Railways actually spent 100 million yuan in 1994. Chemical experts point out that the polymer compound needs 200 to 400 years to be decomposed.

Disposal or burial of such plastic products in the soil will impede the growth of crops. According to calculations, residual plastic containers, bowls, and membrane kilograms per mu of land can reduce corn production by 11% to 23%, wheat production by 10% to 6%, and bean production by 6% to 10%. The reduction in production is 15% to 60%. In recent years, hundreds of thousands of tons of waste plastic lunch boxes, bowls, membranes and plastic bags have been left in the country's farmland. Only the area of ​​plastic tableware used throughout 1994 can be covered in two years. A Singapore. These plastics were eaten by the animals. The lighter ones were sick in the digestive system and the others died. If it is burned, it releases a large amount of toxic gas. "White pollution" is polluting the living environment of human beings. Eliminating "white pollution" has become a hot topic in today's world. This year on June 25, is the 25th World Environment Protection Day. The theme of this World Environment Day is “developing green packaging for life on Earth”. It is precisely the specificization and in-depth development of this topic. There are four types of green packaging products on display at this time. First, internationally recognized environmental protection Materials such as BOPS longitudinal stretched polystyrene and its products, the second is the green packaging material pulp molding, the third is the paper lunch box and its production equipment, and the fourth is double degradable plastic products.

It can be seen that the problem of green packaging is an urgently resolved issue that has risen to global issues that need to be addressed. In foreign countries, many countries and regions have begun to move. They promulgated the rules, and actively use chemical technology to develop new types of decomposable plastics, or to use alternatives.

In Japan, traders who operate food have given up on plastic packaging, setting off a "green" revolution in the food industry and achieving greater success. Their food packaging is not only better and more practical. The need to care for the environment has also become an important issue for the packaging industry. Today's Japanese merchants try to use raw materials that do not pollute the environment when packaging food, and use paper bags instead of plastic containers. This also reduces the cost and technical difficulties of collecting the used packaging to the factory for recycling. Green packaging design Play a big role in this area. Many designers have made useful designs and have made gratifying achievements. Three reforms have been carried out, for example:

1 save material

A. The packaging designed and manufactured by Ajinomoto, Japan, can be said to have not displayed its glorious brilliance. Instead, it is made of white single-layered corrugated paper to make the most economical packaging, and label printing is also unpretentious;

B. Japan Shiseido Co., Ltd. launched packaging for high-efficiency shampoos and conditioners, demonstrating the power of its designers to carefully select packaging materials based on packaging capabilities. The whole set of design is far from the so-called "eye-catching packaging" originally seen, and its purpose is to reduce the use of materials as much as possible, thereby reducing the generation of garbage;

C. The packaging of Japanese bowls and dish cleaners can also take care of environmental protection needs. After the consumer has used the detergent for the first time, he can buy detergents sold in vertical or in bags, and then pour the detergent into the original plastic container to continue using it, so that the plastic container does not need to be discarded;

D. Ninety percent of Japan's milk is sold in creased lines. This is a good education. It allows children to contact and use environmentally-friendly “green” products since childhood. This kind of packaging that is easy to flatten is not only costly. Lower, and can reduce the footprint, ease to send to the cycle and reduce transportation costs. In addition, Yakltt, a popular Japanese drink, also uses a specially designed cup-shaped container with a tear-off bottom. After tearing the bottom, one can easily flatten the container for easy recycling. Every year in Tokyo, Japan, a packaging design contest is held. One award-winning drink package called Ecopac was widely used. Its packaging consists of a 100% recyclable cardboard box and a box containing a bag containing beverages. The so-called Bag in Carcon/Box design mainly aims to make it easier for people to separate the carton from the bag, and it is easier to handle when it is recycled. Most of the beverages and alcoholic beverages on the market in Japan use this kind of packaging. Another new packaging design that is beginning to be accepted by consumers is the standing bag/povch. Because opening a bag is easier than opening a bottle, the internal liquid Warm out, so the opening of the bag is specially designed for easy opening. This type of bag is mainly used to replace plastic bottles. When comparing the two, the former uses only one-fifth of the plastic. In addition to drinks. Many Japanese cooking oils are sold in composite paper packaging, which greatly reduces the use of plastics.

The above are the excellent designs of several “green” packages that are commonly used in Japan. Most of them can reduce the difficulty of recycling. More importantly, they are beneficial to the maintenance of human health. Although paper containers have replaced plastic containers, the waste of packaging advertising is still a problem that cannot be ignored.

If they are calculated by weight, they account for 20% to 30% of the total amount of waste. If they are calculated by volume, they account for 50% to 60% of the total waste. In view of this situation, Japanese experts pointed out that many have not packed necessary foods. Can completely give up the package. Taking vegetables and fruits as an example, a survey conducted by the Japan Chain Stores Association showed that 90% of vegetables and fruits except tomatoes, peaches, and strawberries do not require sales packaging, which helps maintain the nutrition and freshness of vegetables and fruits. These "green" packages are worth learning from.

2 Packaging Design for the Development of Safe Materials

Japan's Suntory company uses the gift beer packaging as a gift to the customers. The packaging box is made of wheat shells after being processed and refined. After packaging, this kind of material can be differentiated and become a kind of fertilizer, forming a kind of resource. The packer did a good job in the ecology and recycling process. In the past, under the guiding principle of unlimited resources, a model of resource → → processing → sales → use → discarding → recycling was formed to complete the following virtuous cycle:
┌Processing a sales ┐
Use of resources to recycle a waste

In this way, take nature. It is also natural that packaging designed with such materials can be considered a model of "safety materials" and "safe packaging." Baisheng paper has a special status as a safety material in packaging design. In 1991, the Japan Packaging Design Association Exhibition devoted a part to introducing and displaying the results of this aspect. The designer designed an unappealing white gift paper bag, in which the seed of the tree had been added to its paper making process. After it was discarded, the seeds inside would have the opportunity to take root and germinate, in addition to the decomposition of the paper itself. Even growing up, this package design proposal is no doubt beneficial to our protection of the ecological environment, and the significance of recycling process to a new field. Japan's “guarding earth design team from the future” design is quite new. It completely consumes the packaging when used inside the packaging. They design the edible oil packaging, the plastic hollow spheres used for packaging edible oils are edible plastics. , Self-melting after cooking, this safe material is gradually accepted by consumers.

3 Packaging Designs for Easy Recycling

For the purpose of protecting the environment, proper forms must be adopted in the packaging design. Incentives in the proper form and construction facilitate consumers to recycle waste packaging. Japan's Suntory company launched the beer cans packaging, after drinking, as long as the direction prompted by its tank shape, the left and right twist can reduce the size, easy recycling. There are 2.5 million canned beverage vending machines installed on the streets of Japanese cities and towns, and 35 billion cans of beverages are sold in one year. The departments concerned have made tremendous efforts in recycling these wastes after the sale. The packaging design for this project has also been implemented. Came into being. At present, the recovery rate of empty tin cans has reached 45.7%, and the recovery rate of empty aluminum cans has reached 435%. However, there is still a large gap between the recovery rate of empty aluminum cans in the United States in 1990 and 63.6%. To this end, the Japanese Water Government adopts the method of awarding empty cans for recycling, and each sales shop also often provides consumers with simple tools and methods to promote the development of recycling work and to ensure that such waste packaging does not cause environmental pollution. Ajinomoto Co., Ltd. introduced a package for all kinds of edible oils. When the internal oil is used up, it only needs to be compressed up and down. Makes it possible to reduce the volume and facilitate the recycling effect. Design methods and principles and changes in aesthetic standards. In other countries, there are also ways to reform them.

For example: In the UK, a chemical company invented a new biodegradable plastic. This plastic not only has the durability, stability and waterproof properties of some plastics. And as many organic substances in the natural world can be rapidly and effectively decomposed into carbon dioxide and water. In the United States, a chemical company has made a new type of plastic--lactic acid polymer. In the United States, a chemical company has made a new type of Plastics --- lactic acid polymers, which are made from renewable resources such as cheese whey and corn. Under the coexistence of moisture, air, and fungi, the plastic can be degraded into carbon dioxide and water in about six months. It is most suitable for the fast food and food industry and tableware and packaging materials.

In China, we have invented a disposable snack box made from pure natural pulp. After being discarded, the paper cutlery was fully degraded on 7—15 days without leaving any toxic substances. However, there is an advantage in Xizhong that this paper lunch box can not be brought to market as soon as possible, there are three factors:

(1) Relatively lax regulatory construction and local protectionism, substitute products cannot keep up with consumption habits, etc. There is no specific policy for the production and development of paper lunch boxes. How to guide and encourage them to follow rules and regulations Manufacturing equipment, series products and testing methods. There are no national or partial special standards.
(2) Support funds are not in place and require new equipment, new materials, new processes and new technologies. Relying on a small number of scientific research, production and use units is unbearable. Manpower purchases high-efficiency equipment and facilities and cannot form scale.
(3) As the consumer market is immature, the paper lunch boxes have met with reproach at each concentration point, and a large number of listed major climates have yet to be formed.
(4) After the production cost is high, the cost of the paper lunch box is 0.05----0.30 yuan more than the plastic lunch box. It needs anti-board paper as raw material and wood pulp. Its production process is complicated and expensive raw materials.
(5) Product quality is not stable enough. Due to factors such as raw materials, auxiliary materials and manufacturing technology, the quality level has not yet reached the mature level of foam plastic lunch boxes, and it needs further research. For example, the cardboard boxes are subject to problems such as pressure resistance, tension and lamination, thermal insulation and the like, and the appearance quality is not yet stable.

In summary, the current reason why China's paper lunch boxes fail to effectively occupy the market is, in addition to social factors, the more important one is the quality problem. However, “to replace paper with paper is already the trend of the world and the need for human survival. It can be asserted that with the growing awareness of the environmental protection of the entire nation, with the growing maturity of paper lunch boxes, coupled with the correct guidance of national industrial policies and the active participation of the whole society, the universal use of paper snack boxes will be realized in the Chinese market. Goal to solve this "white pollution" problem, we