How Packaging Companies Realize Green Packaging

According to the ISO14000 series of standards, packaging companies must implement the following “green packaging”:

(1) Packaging manufacturers must establish an environmental management system. The establishment of the "Environmental Management System" (EMS) is the first step for packaging companies and companies to go green, just as ISO9000 requires the establishment of a "quality system." Its task is to formulate and implement environmental guidelines, plan environmental activities, implement environmental management supervision and inspection, and so on. The core elements of the management system include the company's environmental policy, environmental planning, implementation and operation, inspection and correction, and management review. The management system will ensure that enterprises achieve the purpose of "green packaging." The environmental policy, goals and activities planned by the company should be appropriate to its own attributes, scale, production (activity), product and service impacts on the environment; and there are commitments to save resources, prevent pollution, and comply with relevant laws and regulations.

(2) Packaging companies must pass environmental certification. According to ISO14000 requirements, color packaging companies must pass "Environmental Certification" (EA) to ensure that the company meets the requirements of the ISO 14010-19 standard. Quality certification focuses on the product's own quality, while environmental certification focuses on the product's "environmental quality." For packaging manufacturers, it is not enough to simply “reduce resources, reduce pollution, and reuse”. Enterprises must have EMS systems and be certified by national authorities. Some smart manufacturers in China have passed environmental certification.

(3) The packaging shall have environmental signs. The environmental label (EL) is commonly referred to as the "green sign". In the future, the three types of environmental labels that are introduced by ISO are Type I, Type II, and Type III. The type I sign specified by ISO14000 is called "ecological sign" and it is determined according to the ecological situation of each country. Therefore, there will be a big difference between developed countries and underdeveloped countries. The type II logo is an enterprise's "self-declaration" type of "information mark." Enterprises disclose their environmental policies and environmental data and information to the public in a labeling manner and accept social supervision. The type III mark is the "quality mark" of the environment of the product, and is marked with specific numerical indicators and line segments. It is more intuitive and convenient. National government agencies will recommend products or packages with "environmental signs" to users or consumers.

(4) Packaging companies should evaluate their own environmental behaviors and environmental impacts by related departments, which are called Environmental Performance Assessments (EPE). The results are represented by the "Environmental Behavior Index" (EPIS). Evaluation results will help packaging companies choose to save resources, prevent pollution, make use of new technologies and new management systems, and reach a new level

(5) Life cycle assessment of packaging products. The so-called "life cycle" refers to the entire process of "products (packaging) from material mining to processing and manufacturing to circulation and reuse to recycling and disposal" and "returning from the earth to the earth". It is also translated as "ecology." Cycle or "ecosphere." To manufacture any kind of product, we must first "put in" the material energy manpower, etc., and then "output" the product. This industry "product" necessarily includes the required products and waste, excrement, etc. Therefore, ISO 14000 requires packaging companies to carry out the above-mentioned “full-process” life cycle assessment (LCA) for packaging in order to carry out “full-process” control and adopt “zero pollution” or “clean processes” to produce “green products”. Meet the "green packaging" standard.