Sustainable development of green packaging and its impact on packaging companies

With the economic development and improvement of people's living standards, packaging has become increasingly important in the national economy. At the same time, however, environmental pollution caused by packaging and the destruction of the ecological environment are also becoming increasingly serious. According to statistics, annual production of 200 million tons of solid waste in cities above the county level in China, including the proportion of waste is 1/10, and the proportion is gradually rising. Therefore, we must pay enough attention to the packaging materials from development to production, processing, use, recycling, reuse, and waste disposal, so that people have an oasis of life. Otherwise, it will eventually lead to human beings unable to survive. Therefore, how to make the packaging industry continue to develop while effectively controlling its damage to environmental pollution and ecology, and making it continue to decrease, has become one of the main topics of the packaging industry research today.

Green Packaging and Sustainable Development

l, green packaging

The concept of green products originated in Germany. In 1987, Germany implemented a "Blue Sky Envoyment" program. The Environmental Protection Committee granted green labels to the products that meet environmental protection requirements during production and use, and that are harmless to the environment and human health. Subsequently, the United States, Japan, Canada and other countries have also established a green certification system to ensure that consumers recognize the environmental nature of products, while encouraging manufacturers to produce pollution-free green products. Green Packaging originated from the "Our Common Future" document of the United Nations Environment and Development Committee in 1987. It is also known as Friends of the Environment packaging and ecological packaging. It refers to packaging that is harmless to the ecological environment and human health, energy recycling and material recycling, and can promote sustainable development. At present, international requirements require that packaging meet the 4R principle, that is, reduce the amount of material used and increase the amount of container refill ( Refil1), Recycling, Recover and Degradation of materials (Degnadeble's establishment of a green packaging system has become a requirement of the World Trade Organization.

2. Sustainable development

There are two meanings for sustainable development. First, sustainable development emphasizes meeting people's needs and improving people's quality of life as the highest goal. Sustainability can not be understood as merely satisfying the simple survival and reproduction of human beings and low-level expanded reproduction of products, but it encourages a virtuous cycle in which the quality of life continues to increase. The second is that sustainable development focuses on all factors that affect development, including the environment, economy, science and technology, and society. Although several factors have their own separate aspects, they are often cause and effect in many cases, if only one-sided development In part, the results cannot be sustained.

3, the relationship between green packaging and sustainable development

The development of green packaging is the only choice for the sustainable development of the packaging industry. In the wave of sustainable development, the world has set off a green revolution. The highly developed industrial production has created a material civilization for mankind, and it has also brought a series of environments. Problems, such as environmental pollution, depletion of resources, and ecological destruction, have constrained the sustainable development of the economy and endangered the long-term interests of mankind. In order to make their own enterprises and their products remain undefeated in the fierce market competition, packaging companies must adopt corresponding systems and measures. In keeping with the development of the times, green packaging will become the development direction of packaging companies.

The impact of green packaging on packaging companies

Green packaging is becoming an inevitable choice for packaging. The impact on packaging companies will also be comprehensive and far-reaching. We can analyze the following aspects:

1. Influence of relevant national laws, regulations, policies and standards on packaging enterprises

In order to realize the scientific concept of development and achieve circular economy and sustainable development, China has formulated a series of relevant laws, regulations, policies and standards, of which the <Packaging Law> has been brewing for a long time and has been put on the agenda. The introduction of packaging pollution tax has also been widely discussed and approved, which will have a great impact on packaging companies. Including the acquisition of raw materials, energy, and funds, resulting in increased costs, and even improved management levels, will become a key factor in guiding and constraining the development of packaging companies.

2. Impact of the Green Wave on International Trade

Whether it is an international market or a domestic market, product competition In addition to traditional factors such as price and product quality, environmental indicators are becoming an important factor, and the relationship between environmental protection and international trade has become increasingly closer. The increasingly close relationship between green packaging and international trade is mainly reflected in: (1) The environmental protection requirements of packaging have a significant impact on international trade; (2) Green packaging is a new non-tariff barrier.

3, the impact of green consumption patterns and green marketing on packaging companies

From the 1980s to the 1990s, there has been a shift from the concept of healthy consumption to the concept of environmentally friendly consumption. The concept of environmental protection has become more and more popular. Many consumers not only consider the quality and price when purchasing goods, but also consider whether the product is polluting the environment in the process of production and consumption, and think that packaging should assume greater environmental responsibility. Packaging that does not meet environmental requirements not only affects people’s survival but also affects the survival of packaged products.

Green marketing is based on conventional marketing and emphasizes the organic combination of consumer demand, corporate economic and environmental benefits, and has strong marketing impact and appeal. Green packaging plays a pivotal role in green marketing. Green consumption and green marketing require packaging companies to quickly change their concepts, update their products, and green their packaging products.

Packaging Enterprises' Response to Green Packaging Management

At present, China has taken many measures in terms of green packaging and achieved certain results, but it is still lagging behind the world's advanced level. Mainly manifested in: (1) low level of scientific research and investment, low technological content of green packaging; (2) laws, regulations, policies, standards lag behind, not supporting, low level i (3) national awareness of environmental protection, especially business The lack of understanding of the importance of green packaging has resulted in poor overall results; (4) There are many problems in corporate governance that prevent the input of resources from exerting optimal benefits. The management countermeasures for packaging companies dealing with green packaging are:

l. Fully understand the development trend and importance of green packaging Enterprises should strengthen education and learning, establish a scientific development concept, unify understanding, enhance the awareness of corporate social responsibility, and cultivate the culture of green packaging companies; increase training and education, and increase the number of employees The quality.

2. Conscientiously study, understand, and implement relevant laws, regulations, policies, and standards. Enterprises should identify issues during their implementation and make proposals on their own initiative to make them more perfect and promote the development of China's green packaging.

3. Develop and apply professional talents, set up corresponding agencies to coordinate management, and establish a green packaging management system

The development of green packaging must rely on modern management, improve the level of comprehensive management, achieve a short development period, low cost and excellent quality. Doing a good job in quality management is the central link in the development of green packaging products and is the key to achieving a virtuous circle of economy. The formation of product quality must go through eight stages: market research, product development, manufacturing process, procurement, production, inspection, sales, and service. The product quality is determined by the changes in the quality factors during the product formation process. It is necessary to control the quality of products, machines, materials, methods, rings and other factors within the optimal state.

The purpose of establishing a quality information management process is to evaluate the completion of the quality objectives and identify the areas that need improvement. The quality information management process includes the name, record, delivery, statistics, analysis, and reporting methods of quality information and related responsibilities. Strengthen the review of quality system documentation and strengthen the review of top management. Develop green packaging and establish strict quality inspection standards. Enterprises should establish a green packaging management system to formulate, implement and maintain green packaging guidelines, conduct management and review, etc. For manufacturers who produce packaging materials and containers, it is not enough to just “energy saving, recycling, and reuse”. Starting from the long-term interests, a green packaging management system should be established and certified by an authoritative organization. Green packaging management system will guide enterprises to continuously improve their environmental behavior so as to win the market in competition.

When a company establishes and uses a green packaging management system, it needs a system evaluation method to evaluate the company's environmental impact and resource regeneration data. Therefore, it is necessary to establish a green packaging evaluation system. In order to express the assessment results using quantitative data, the “Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method” can be used for evaluation. Implementation of "prevention-based" requires companies to adopt "green technology" and "clean process" to carry out "full-process" control. In this way, in order to make every aspect of product packaging pass LCA evaluation, the company can obtain “green enterprise” and corresponding green standards, and the product packaging it produces is “green packaging”.

4. Increase investment in green packaging science and technology, strengthen cooperation with scientific research institutes, and ensure the success of scientific research and development with management measures. According to the development status of China's green packaging, the funds invested by enterprises are pitifully low. The reason for this is that the lack of funds for the company itself and the investment in the development of green packaging do not necessarily result in corresponding outputs. However, if companies want to truly develop, they must adapt to the development of the times. As a packaging company, grasping and applying green packaging technology is conducive to the prosperity of enterprises, the protection of the environment and human health. The lack of funds is indeed a big problem. The operation of enterprise management has considerable knowledge. The funds invested must not only be within the range that the enterprise can afford, but also make the funds worthwhile and get the proper value return. It can be said that the management of funds is related to the smooth progress of production, the beneficial use of technology and the popularity of products. In short, for the harmonious development of man and nature, investment in the development of green packaging is a matter for packaging companies to ponder.